Digital Optical Computing with Fibers and Directional Couplers

Abstract

The goal of the Digital Optical Computing program of the Center for Optoelectronic Computing Systems is to design and demonstrate a prototype of a stored program optical computer using the knowledge base developed in connection with electronic digital computers. The target architecture is to be all-optical. This means that components with only optical inputs and outputs (except perhaps for power) are the basis of the architecture. The devices making up these components may have significant electronic parts which mediate the optical switching. From the architectural point of view, however, these components are treated as "black boxes" and could be replaced with any optical switching devices yielding the same functionality. The emphasis is thus on optical architecture, which we take to mean the architecture of a machine in which all information is carried between logic elements by optical signals, and in which the role of electronics interior to switching elements is minimized to the extent which is realizable.