Photonic Chips Will Change Computing Forever... If We Can Get Them Right
Using photons in computers instead of electrons could make light-speed computing possible, but at what cost? This Is the End of the Silicon Chip, Here's What's ...
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The electrons shuffling around inside our computers move pretty fast, theoretically their top speed in silicon is up to 100,000 meters per second. Which is good because the faster they can move, the faster chips can do calculations, the faster I can refresh twitter. But there will always be something faster. Light. Why don’t we use photons in computers instead of electrons? We already use photons for communication; fiber optic cables are what keep the globe’s computers interconnected as they hurtle data around at light speed. But when it comes time to process that data, we convert light to electrons and run them through transistors. The conversion uses energy and electrons are comparatively slow, so researchers are exploring how to build light based transistors instead. Transist...
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The electrons shuffling around inside our computers move pretty fast, theoretically their top speed in silicon is up to 100,000 meters per second. Which is good because the faster they can move, the faster chips can do calculations, the faster I can refresh twitter. But there will always be something faster. Light. Why don’t we use photons in computers instead of electrons? We already use photons for communication; fiber optic cables are what keep the globe’s computers interconnected as they hurtle data around at light speed. But when it comes time to process that data, we convert light to electrons and run them through transistors. The conversion uses energy and electrons are comparatively slow, so researchers are exploring how to build light based transistors instead. Transist...
