WELCOME

OPTICAL COMPUTING
 Introduction
• With the growth of computing technology the need of high performance
computers (HPC) has significantly increased.

• Optical computing was a hot research area in 1980’s.But the work tapered
off due to materials limitations.

• Using light, instead of electric power, for performing computations.

• This choice is motivated by several features that light has:

• • It is very fast. Actually the fastest thing that we know, and

speed is exactly what we need for our computers.
• It can be easily manipulated (divided, transported, delayed,
split, etc).
• It is very well suited for parallelization.
Optical computing technology is, in general, developing in two directions.
•
• One approach is to build computers that have the same architecture as
present day computers but using optics that is Electro optical hybrids.

• Another approach is to generate a completely new kind of computer, which

can perform all functional operations in optical mode.
 Why we Use Optics for Computing?
• So to make computers faster, their components must be smaller and
there by decrease the distance between them.
• This has resulted in the development of very large scale integration
(VLSI) technology

• But they are limited not only by the speed of electrons in matter but
also by the increasing density of interconnections necessary to link
the electronic gates on microchips.
• One of the theoretical limits on how fast a computer can function is
given by Einstein’s principle that signal cannot propagate faster than
speed of light.

• The optical computing comes as a solution of miniaturization

problem.
 Features of optical computing
• Optical interconnections and optical integrated circuits
have several advantageous over their electronic
counterparts.

• And free from electrical short circuits.

• Optical data processing can perform several operations

in parallel much faster and easier than electrons.

• They are compact, lightweight, and inexpensive to

Manufacture

• Computing is that optical data processing can be done

much easier and less expensive

• Optics has a higher bandwidth capacity over electronics,

which enables more information to be carried
 OPTICAL COMPUTER
 An optical computer (also called a photonic computer) is a device
thatuses the PHOTONS in visible light or infrared ( IR ) beams,rather
than electric current, to perform digital computations.

 An optical computer, besides being much faster than an electronic one,

might also be smaller.

 Bright flashes of laser light can be sent hundreds of miles along fine
strands of specially made glass or plastic called OPTICAL FIBERS.

 Instead of transistors, such a computer will have TRANSPHASORS

 These are switches that are activated by beams of light rather than by
pulses of electricity.

 And unlike transistors, transphasors can be built to handle several

incoming signals at once.

 Beams of light can crisscross and overlap without becoming mixed up,
whereas crossed electric currents would get hopelessly confused.

 Also, the arrangement of connections and switches would not have to be

flat, as in an electronic computer. It could be placed in any direction in
space, allowing totally new designs in information processing.
Optic Fiber cables made of glass or plastic
Silicon Machines…

…versus Optical Computers

SOME KEY OPTICAL COMPONENTS FOR
COMPUTING

 The major components are:

1. VCSEL (VERTICAL CAVITY SURFACE EMITTING LASER)

 VCSEL (pronounced ‘vixel’) is a semiconductor vertical cavity surface

emitting laser diode that emits light in a cylindrical beam vertically from
the surface of a fabricated wafer
 There are two special semiconductor materials sandwiching an active
layer where all the action takes place.
 But rather than reflective ends, in a VCSEL there are several layers of
partially reflective mirrors above and below the active layer. Layers of
semiconductors with differing compositions create these mirrors, and
each mirror reflects a narrow range of wavelengths back in to the
cavity in order to cause light emission at just one wavelength.
Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser
2. SMART PIXEL TECHNOLOGY

• Smart pixel technology is a relatively new approach to integrating

electronic circuitry and optoelectronic devices in a common framework.

• Here, the electronic circuitry provides complex functionality and

programmability.

• While the optoelectronic devices provide high-speed switching and

compatibility with existing optical media.

• Arrays of these smart pixels leverage the parallelism of optics for

interconnections as well as computation. A smart pixel device, a light
emitting diode under the control of a field effect transistor can now be
made entirely out of organic materials on the same substrate for the first
time. In general, the benefit of organic over conventional semiconductor
electronics is that they should lead to cheaper, lighter, circuitry that can
be printed rather than etched.
3. WDM (WAVELENGTH DIVISION MULTIPLEXING)

• Wavelength division multiplexing is a method of sending many different

wavelengths down the same optical fiber. Using this technology,
modern networks in which individual lasers can transmit at 10 gigabits
per second through the same fiber at the same time.
• WDM can transmit up to 32 wavelengths through a single fiber, but
cannot meet the bandwidth requirements of the present day
communication systems. So nowadays DWDM (Dense wavelength
division multiplexing) is used. This can transmit up to 1000 wavelengths
through a single fiber. That is by using this we can improve the
bandwidth efficiency.

4. ADVANCES IN PHOTONIC SWITCHES

Logic gates are the building blocks of any digital system. An optical
logic gate is a switch that controls one light beam by another; it is ON
when the device transmits light and it is OFF when it blocks the light.
 MERITS
• Optical computing is at least 1000 to 100000 times faster
than today’s silicon machines.
• Optical storage will provide an extremely optimized way
to store data, with space requirements far lesser than
today’s silicon chips.
• Super fast searches through databases.
• No short circuits, light beam can cross each other
without interfering with each other’s data.
• Higher performance
• Higher parallelism
• Less heat is released
• Less noise
• More Flexible in layout
• Less loss in communication
DRAWBACKS
• Today’s materials require much high power to work in
consumer products, coming up with the right materials
may take five years or more.

• Optical computing using a coherent source is simple to

compute and understand, but it has many drawbacks
like any imperfections or dust on the optical
components will create unwanted interference pattern
due to scattering effects.

• Optical components and their production is still

expensive

• New expensive high-tech factories have to be built

 FUTURE TRENDS
• The Ministry of Information Technology has initiated a photonic
development program. Under this program some funded projects are
continuing in fiber optic high-speed network systems. Research is going
on for developing new laser diodes, photo detectors, and nonlinear
material studies for faster switches.
 CONCLUSION
 Research in optical computing has opened up new possibilities in several
fields related to high performance computing, high-speed
communications. To design algorithms that execute applications faster
,the specific properties of optics must be considered, such as their ability
to exploit massive parallelism, and global interconnections. As
optoelectronic and smart pixel devices mature, software development will
have a major impact in the future and the ground rules for the computing
may have to be rewritten.
THANK YOU........