There are 32 S-SEEDs on each of four arrays within the (The S-SEED was invented in 1987 by Anthony Lentine, Scott Speed of 1 billion operations per second and a switching energy of aboutġ picojoule. These are optical switches with a potential Inside the optical processor are Symmetric Self-Electro-opticĮffect Devices (S-SEEDs).
Optical processor will generate a gradual upgrading of today's Like a racig car that contributes improvements to the familyĬar's carburetor, suspension, steering, and engine, the prototype Its first impact in some of the components used in electronic computers. As Huang sees it, this radically new technology will make Which the Huang optical processor can be compared) carried only one Keep in mind that the Wright brothers' first airplane (to Process more than a thousand times as much information as theirĮlectronic counterparts. These peak load demands reduce the processing power that can beĪllocated to maintaining a network. Some terminals show the load imposed on a computerīy a task, sometimes displaying a bar so long that you cannot almost Network administrators are aware that the computers capacities are Usually are able to handle the workloads imposed on them, but most Today's electronic computers, including supercomputers, It's as if traffic on any street in Manhattan could simply flowĪcross the water to the mainland, without having to use a bridge or a (such as fiber) to move from one switching or storage medium to another. In optical computing, this traffic congestion is eliminated byĬreating high-capacity light paths that no longer need a phsical carrier Happens on a chip that is connected by relatively few wires to its If you think of the people and cars as data, the same thing When cars and people try to cross the waters, they have only a fewĬrossing points choke up quickly at rush hours, slowing traffic to aĬrawl. Unveiled the world's first optical digital processor> and inĪpril, Scott Hinton showed the hardware required for photonic switchingįabrics based on free-space digital optics.Īlan Huang likes to compare electronic computing to opticalĬomputing by drawing an analogy to Manhattan. Performance limits, and they're getting closer at the time in theseĭays of increasing demands from network users.ĭuring 1990, two important Bell Labs innovations inv olving opticalĬommunications were demonstrated for the press. Like the vacuum tubes that preceded the transistor, electronic systems have theoretical These developments have not been unexpected. This enables switching systems and digital access and cross-connect systems (DACS) to transfer signalsįrom channel to channel without having to convert them from light pulsesĮlectronic switching systems-and computers-might see theirĭominance start to fade within this decade.
In free space (even if the distance is measured in micrometers) can pass
More than just glass pipelines for huge flows of data. It is not clear that sometime soon, photonic systems will be a lot Another benefit is that lightwave signalsĪre not easily intercepted by unauthorized people. Transmit thousands of channels on a finger-thick cable has a lot ofĪppeal, especially in communications systems that share ducts alreadyįiber's immunity to stray electrical fields is another greatĪdvantage, since it eliminates electrical "noise" as aĭisrupter of signal clarity. "fiber can do anything copper can do, better." The ability to That is still less than 1% of the theoretical potential capacity ofĪstonishing as such exhibitions can be, they reflect theĪpplications of the past. Supply each of 10,000 customers with 10 ISDN signals, or the equivalent ThatĢ0 Gb/s multiplexed signal is capable of carrying enough information to Second, resulting in a multiplexed signal of 20 gigabits per secondĬarried without errors over 42 miles of single-mode optical fiber. Up 10 lasers, each producing a signal of 2 billion bits (2 gigabits) per Several years ago, researchers at AT&T Bell Laboratories rigged In fact, we're still probing the possibilities. Technology (even in today's most advanced applications) is stillįairly primitive compared to what we can expect from it in the future. The communications industry turned on the lights-lightwave, that
And then there was light." Retrieved from