Ternary Optical Computer Architecture

Abstract

A fire-new way to construct an optical computer is put forward in this paper. Distinguished from others, the optical computer in this study expresses information by two polarized states with orthogonal vibration directions and no-intensity of light, therefore it was named ternary optical computer. Constituting its general architecture by the good combination of electric control and optical calculation, the ternary optical computer employs optical fiber ring as register, semiconductor memory as ternary cell, and liquid crystal as modulator and adder. Meanwhile, an electronic computer group produces signals to control every part of the ternary optical computer. The superiority of this novel ternary optical computer was also introduced in this paper.