Israeli Processor Computes At Speed Of Light

[ZaZu]

Israeli processor computes at speed of light


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.

“Optical processing is a strategic competitive advantage for nations and companies,” said Avner Halperin, vice president for business development at Lenslet.

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.

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.

“In five years we plan to shrink it to a single chip,” project manager Asaf Schlezinger said.

Tully said one issue is whether this technology can be produced in volume the way silicon chips are made. Sariel is negotiating joint projects with companies and/or government agencies in the United States, Europe and Japan to produce the processor for specific applications. It already has projects signed with Israel’s Defence Ministry. —Reuters


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[Virtualbody1234]

Electricity travels at the speed of light so don't our current CPU compute at the speed of light?

[clocker]

I don't much care if it's really faster, but does the thing run cooler?
That would be nice.

[Virtualbody1234]

Originally posted by clocker@23 November 2003 - 18:23
I don't much care if it's really faster, but does the thing run cooler?
That would be nice.

Did I actually hear that from someone who overclocks?

[clocker]

Who me?

I don't consider my rig to be overclocked.

I perfer to think that I've just helped it "be all that it can be"...

[mooseman2070]

Originally posted by ZaZu@23 November 2003 - 22:01
Israeli processor computes at speed of light


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.

“Optical processing is a strategic competitive advantage for nations and companies,” said Avner Halperin, vice president for business development at Lenslet.

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.

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.

“In five years we plan to shrink it to a single chip,” project manager Asaf Schlezinger said.

Tully said one issue is whether this technology can be produced in volume the way silicon chips are made. Sariel is negotiating joint projects with companies and/or government agencies in the United States, Europe and Japan to produce the processor for specific applications. It already has projects signed with Israel’s Defence Ministry. —Reuters


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what clock speed does it run in GHz?

[supersonic]

Dunno, but would it be safe to use? because it might affect the health, especially for human use

[balamm]

Originally posted by Virtualbody1234@23 November 2003 - 15:05
Electricity travels at the speed of light so don't our current CPU compute at the speed of light?

Does it? Theres debate about that. Certainly the operations and switches aren't done at the speed of light.

http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/topic/5367-1.html

Search google using your statement " Electricity travels at the speed of light" and you'll find a lot of this.

[Virtualbody1234]

I can't be bothered to read that, balamm. Electricity is close enough to being the speed of light in my book.

[balamm]

Then you'll be quite happy with your slow electronic processor when the rest of the world jumps to light processing I guess. To each their own I guess.