Optical Computers 1

Optical Computers:
The Future of Technology
Brandon Hussey and Owen Onderdonk

Optical Engineering

Dr. Kasra Daneshvar

July 12, 2002

 Optical Computers 2

Abstract

According to Moore’s Law the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles

every 18 months. But as we continue to make transistors smaller, we will

eventually run out of space on microchips. So in order to keep advancing in

computer technology without adding transistors as it is done today, we need to

change the composition of the hardware. The next step into the future of computers

is in optics. Optics offers many benefits over today’s electrical computers

including: higher bandwidth, superior processing power, and enlarged storage

space.
 Optical Computers 3

Background

To process, store, and transfer data in today’s modern computers electrons

are sent through millions of transistor switches along metal wires. In order to

create faster data transfer and processing the computer industry has repeatedly

made smaller transistors and put more of them on a chip. Right now, it is possible

for companies to fit 300 million transistor switches on one chip. Scientists even

predict that in the coming decades computer technology will become atomic in

size. But this process of using electrons and metal wires has some disadvantages

that fiber optics will completely eliminate.

Optical fibers are small glass wires used to send light pulses. They are

basically made up of a center glass core, a cladding that makes sure the light

doesn’t escape the core, and a buffer coating which protects the inside fibers.

When the light enters the

core, it is reflected off the

walls, which are mirror-lined

so the light continues all the

way down the fiber. The

process of the light reflecting

down the fiber is called total

internal reflection.
 Optical Computers 4

Because optical fibers transmit light, the transfer speed is very fast, a great

amount faster than that of the copper wires we use today. Also, when sending

information over copper wires, it must put the data in small groups called packets.

Copper wires can only send one of these packets at a time because the electrical

signals cannot run parallel. Light, on the other hand, has no problem with having

other data run parallel with it. This means you can send and receive vast amounts

of data at the same time.

Optical Fibers also have other advantages, for example, optical wires are

cheaper, thinner (which lets you have a higher carrying capacity than copper

wires), more power efficient, have less signal degradation, clearer signals, are

optimal for carrying digital signals, lightweight, and flexible. Along with these,

optical fibers can also help benefit many occupations such as medical imaging,

mechanical imaging, and even in plumbing to examine the sewer lines.

Research Question

Chip manufacturing companies continue to put more transistors on their

chips. It is not a problem yet, but what are they going to do when they run out of

room? And in today’s hard drives, they use brute force by giving the data a certain

spot on the hard disk and then access it from that designated place later. But as

technology advances, we will need larger storage capacity and faster access times
 Optical Computers 5

in order to keep up with advancing applications. As these problems continue to

appear we must find a way not only to make faster computer hardware, but also to

make it affordable.

Processors

Probably the most important piece of hardware in your computer is your

processor. It is the “brain” of your computer. It performs all the tasks on your

computer from running games to spell checking word documents. And as games

and applications become more complex, they take more computation power. This

has not been a problem though because the computer companies like Intel and

AMD are always releasing faster and more powerful processing chips. But

eventually these companies will have to find another way to make faster and

affordable chips because of the transistor problem previously stated.

The answer to this problem is optics. Through optics, computers will be

able to reach new speeds people never dreamed possible before. This will be made

possible by the ability of optical wires to send data as light, and to send the data in

huge packets, called solitons. There will be two different types of optical

computers, a pure optical computer and an electro-optic computer.

The pure optical computer will use different wavelengths, or multiple

frequencies, to transmit data. Because of the optical fibers’ ability to send data
 Optical Computers 6

parallel, the optical computer will be able to send various streams of data

simultaneously. Multi-tasking will become much easier with the optical

computer’s processor. In comparison to today’s electric computers a calculation

that would take 1000 hours on current electric computers could take an hour or less

on the future optical computer. The hardest part about this is that to use it you

must build a device that can read the different wavelengths. Today’s computers use

binary code. Scientists are working on building a totally optical computer, but

don’t expect to see one in your home for at least another 10 years.

The second type of optical computer will be the electro-optic computer.

This will be a hybrid of the two, using optical fibers, but also using electric parts to

read the data and direct it. Unlike the pure optical computer, the electro-optic

computer will use light pulses to send information. When the processor sends a 1

or a 0, a device will make the code into a light pulse and, using an LED or laser,

will send it to the next location, whereupon it will be decoded by an electronic

device, back into a 1 or 0. So when sending data, if the light is on it will be

translated as a 1, if the light is off, it will be translated as a 0. It should be around 3

to 5 years before we start seeing electro-optic computers on the market for home

use.

One major benefit of optical computers is the pattern recognition system.

With this someone can put in a picture or symbol and the computer will examine it
 Optical Computers 7

against a reference picture to see if it is valid. For example, if the police get a

fingerprint off a crime scene and want to find out whose it is, they can shine a laser

through the fingerprint. Then the beam goes through a special lense that will

project the picture onto a large board to see if it corresponds to any of the pictures

on it. If it does then it can send out a matrix with a “1” being the picture it

corresponded to. Then the police look at the large board, find out who the “1” was,

and have the person they were looking for. They can also use this for face

recognition and credit card validation. The hope to eventually use pattern

recognition with artificial intelligence so that the robots would be able to identify

things they see.

To the left is a picture of

the way credit card
validation would be
made possible using
pattern recognition.
After projecting the card
and its reference image,
the detector array
decides if the images
correspond with each
other. If they do then it
outputs a signal, if it
does not correspond
then it does not output a
signal.

Holographic Memory
 Optical Computers 8

When Optical Computers are available, a new type of storage device will be

used in the new computers. The new Holographic hard drives will store massive

amounts of information in a sugar

cube sized area. They will be able to

do this by storing data in hologram

form. This will be achieved using a

precise technique of laser shining, as

shown in the diagram to the right. A

blue-green argon laser will be

shined through a beam splitter. The original beam, which will have been split into

a signal beam and a reference beam, will take different paths towards a lithium-

niobate crystal. The signal beam will be reflected by a mirror into a spatial light

modulator (SLM), which is a liquid crystal display (LCD) that shows pages of raw

binary data as clear and dark boxes. The information from the page of binary code

is carried by the signal beam around to the light-sensitive crystal. Meanwhile, the

reference beam will take another path to the crystal. When the two beams meet, the

interference created between them will be stored in a specific area of the crystal, as

a hologram.

Conclusion
 Optical Computers 9

In conclusion, technology is always changing, and computer technology will

soon take a drastic change too. Optics opens new doors to the computer world that

people used to just dream about. From face recognition to artificial intelligence,

optics could easily make these practices trouble-free. Optics are already being

used around the world for various applications, and the future looks very

promising.
 Optical Computers 10

References
Mullen, L. (1999, May 18). Pushing the Limits of Computer Technology: Using
Light and Organic Molecules to Form Materials in Space.
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/msad18may99_1.htm

Segan, S. (2002, March 2). Light Speed: Optical Computers Promise Amazing
Power. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/
cuttingedge010302.html

Martinez, M. (1999). The Light Fantastic: Optical Computers Could Make Silicon
Obsolete. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/
photons990521.html

“How Fiber Optics Work”, HowStuffWorks (http://www.howstuffworks.com),

Freudenrich Ph.D., C. HowStuffWorks, Inc., 2002.

“How Holographic Memory will work”, HowStuffWorks

(http://www.howstuffworks.com), Kevin Bonsor, C. HowStuffWorks, Inc.,
2002