Structure and Implementation Principles of a Photonic Computer

Sergey Stepanenko,A Nadykto,N Aleksic,L Uvarova,X Jiang,K Egiazarian,A Zelensky,P Lima,P Pivkin

doi:10.1051/epjconf/201922404002

Abstract

A structure and implementation principles of a photonic computer are proposed. Its operation is based on the effects of interaction between coherent light wave systems generated by a laser source. The performance of photonic computers, their power consumption, and physical dimensions are estimated. These estimates indicate a great potential advantage of photonic computers over electronic ones. In particular, analysis carried out in this study and the obtained estimates demonstrate that a photonic computer working on the light with a wavelength of 1530 can operate 104 – 105 times faster than up-to-date electronic computers with the same power consumption. Light waves of different wavelengths do not interact with each other. With a proper OLG implementation, several computations represented by light waves of different wavelengths can be run on a single photonic computer.

Highlights

A photonic computer processes information in the form of light carried by photons, the name
Its operation is based on the interaction between coherent light wave systems generated by a laser source [1]
Building a photonic computer has become relevant because electronic computers have encountered fundamental difficulties improving their performance, while the prospect of implementation and application of quantum computers is uncertain [2]

Summary

Introduction

A photonic computer processes information in the form of light carried by photons, the name. The functions of the OLGs are identical to those of electronic logic gates [9] This makes it possible to use architectural implementations of ALUs, SWs and CUs known from electronic computing for photonic computing; timing can be performed using optical delay lines. Information must be processed by conflict-free routes [10] involving only free processor elements and channels at a certain known time step. Its vertices correspond to the processor elements performing operations at time steps t They are connected by edges belonging to conflict-free routes of channels 8. This makes it possible to use the same representation for both electronic and photonic parts of a photonic computer

Communication topologies

Hardware of the photonic processor

Interaction with the environment

Conclusion