Could optical technology offer a solution to the heat generation and bandwidth limitations that the computing industry is starting to face? The benefits of energy-efficient passive components, low crosstalk and parallel processing suggest that the answer may be yes.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Reconfigurable image processing metasurfaces with phase-change materials
Nature Communications Open Access 27 May 2024
-
Dispersion engineered metasurfaces for broadband, high-NA, high-efficiency, dual-polarization analog image processing
Nature Communications Open Access 04 November 2023
-
Solving ordinary and partial differential equations using an analog computing system based on ultrasonic metasurfaces
Scientific Reports Open Access 18 August 2023
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Assefa, S. Xia, F. & Vlasov, Y. Nature 464, 80–84 (2010).
Dolev, S., Haist, T. & Oltean, M. (eds) in Proc. 1st Int. Workshop on Optical Supercomputing Vol. 5172 (Springer, 2008).
Dolev, S. & Oltean, M. (eds) in Proc. 2nd Int. Workshop on Optical Supercomputing Vol. 5882 (Springer, 2009).
Caulfield, H. J., Dolev, S. & Green, W. M. J. (eds) J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 26 (Optical High-Performance Computing feature issue) (2009).
Caulfield, H. J., Dolev, S. & Green, W. M. J. (eds) Appl. Opt. A 48 (Optical High-Performance Computing feature issue) (2009).
Tamir, D., Shaked, N., Wilson, P. & Dolev, S. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 26, A11–A20 (2009).
Landauer, R. IBM J. Res. Dev. 5, 183–191 (1961).
Hardy, J. & Shamir, J. Opt. Express 15, 150–165 (2007).
Caulifield, H. J., Soref, R. A, Zavalin, A. & Hardy, J. Opt. Commun. 2 71, 365–376 (2007).
Caulfield, H. J. in Proc. 2nd Int. Workshop on Optical Supercomputing Vol. 5882, 30–36 (Springer, 2009).
Dolev, S. & Nir, Y. US patent 20050013531 (2005).
Dolev, S. & Fitoussi, H. in Proc. 4th Int. Conf. FUN 2007, 120–134 (Springer, 2007).
Bozhevolnyi, S. I. Plasmonic Nanoguides and Circuits (World Scientific, 2008).
Brongersma, M. L. et al. in Plasmonic Nanoguides and Circuits (ed. Bozhevolnya, S. I.) (World Scientific, 2008).
Fainman, Y., Ikeda, K. & Tan, D. T. H. in Proc. 2nd Int. Workshop on Optical Supercomputing Vol. 5882, 2–4 (Springer, 2009).
Acknowledgements
We thank William Green, Shaya Fainman, Joseph Rosen, Nati Shaked and Hen Fitoussi for helpful inputs.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Caulfield, H., Dolev, S. Why future supercomputing requires optics. Nature Photon 4, 261–263 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.94
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.94
This article is cited by
-
Reconfigurable image processing metasurfaces with phase-change materials
Nature Communications (2024)
-
On-chip optoelectronic logic gates operating in the telecom band
Nature Photonics (2024)
-
Solving ordinary and partial differential equations using an analog computing system based on ultrasonic metasurfaces
Scientific Reports (2023)
-
Ultrafast light-based logic with graphene
Nature Materials (2023)
-
Dispersion engineered metasurfaces for broadband, high-NA, high-efficiency, dual-polarization analog image processing
Nature Communications (2023)