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Optical Computing

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Optical computing, also called photonic computing, uses light waves produced by lasers or other light sources to carry out data processing, data storage or data communication for computation, rather than the electrons used in conventional electronic computers. For decades photons have held out the promise of higher bandwidth than electronic computing can achieve, which has motivated sustained research into computing directly with light.

Facts
Origin Year
1976 1
Core Concern
Using light rather than electrons to carry out data processing, storage or communication for computing. 1
Connections

Associated With

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Optical computing
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead paragraph, first sentence
    Optical computing or photonic computing uses light waves produced by lasers or incoherent sources for data processing, data storage or data communication for computing.
  • Optical components section, note 6 (Jain and Pratt, 1976)
    Jain, K.; Pratt, G. W. Jr. (1976). "Optical transistor". Appl. Phys. Lett. 28 (12): 719. Bibcode:1976ApPhL..28..719J. doi:10.1063/1.88627.
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