"Israeli Processor Computes at Speed of Light" - Daily Times

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_30-10-2003_pg9_1' target='_blank'>http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/defaul...0-10-2003_pg9_1</a><br /><br /></div>"An Israeli start-up has developed a processor that uses optics instead of silicon, enabling it to compute at the speed of light, the company said...The processor performs 8 trillion operations per second, equivalent to a super-computer and 1,000 times faster than standard processors, with 256 lasers performing computations at light speed. It is geared towards such applications as high resolution radar, electronic warfare, luggage screening at airports, video compression, weather forecasting and cellular base stations."<br /><br />Processing at the speed of light on a Pocket PC? Woo hoo! :D Of course, it will take a long time for them to go from their 15 cm x 15 cm x 1.7 cm prototype to a small chip, but it's impressive technology none the less.

[dbman]

FYI, if you explore the literature on optical computing, you will find that it was implemented near the middle of the last century. Spy planes had optical computers that performed real-time filtering and image processing on optical images before the images were recorded on high-speed film.

The optical computer performed countless complex mathmatical operations like Fourier transforms on the images in real-time using specially formulated and shaped mirrors and lens systems.

While the laser driven optics in the Israeli computer might be more practical for applications other than image processing, it is likely that analog optical computers set the speed record before these guys were born. :-)

"An Israeli start-up has developed a processor that uses optics instead of silicon, enabling it to compute at the speed of light, the company said...The processor performs 8 trillion operations per second, equivalent to a super-computer and 1,000 times faster than standard processors, with 256 lasers performing computations at light speed. It is geared towards such applications as high resolution radar, electronic warfare, luggage screening at airports, video compression, weather forecasting and cellular base stations."

Processing at the speed of light on a Pocket PC? Woo hoo! :D Of course, it will take a long time for them to go from their 15 cm x 15 cm x 1.7 cm prototype to a small chip, but it's impressive technology none the less.

[Pat Logsdon]

The company’s prototype is fairly large and bulky but when Lenslet begins to supply the processor in a few months it will be shrunk to 15 x 15 cm with a height of 1.7 cm, roughly the size of a Palm Pilot.
I'm sure they meant to say "Pocket PC" instead... :wink:

[Kati Compton]

Processing at the speed of light on a Pocket PC? Woo hoo!
I wouldn't expect to see that anytime soon even with this new technology. They're saying that JUST the processor is the size of a PDA (stated generically in deference to Mr. Snack's comment... ;) )