An optical computer is a device that performs digital computations with the use of photons of visible light or infrared beams instead of using electricity. Features of this optical computer includes it is fast, it can be easily manipulated and it is very well suited for parallelization. There are two approaches available for developing optical computers, one is to generate a completely new kind of computer, which can perform all functional operations in optical mode and the other approach is to build computers that have the same architecture as present day computers but uses optics.
Using light instead of electric current to build a computer brings lots of advantages and the following are the advantages of the optical computers:
Higher Performance:
Velocity of the light is higher when compared to the electricity used in the conventional computers and this property of the light makes the optical computer to perform high than the conventional computer. This is one of the most significant advantage of the optical computer.
Consumption is Less:
Computers of the present day consume a lot of energy, for instance, modern CPUs often need over 80 watts in idle state, around 120 watts in normal use and up to 250 watts in performance mode. Optical computers have the potential to be more power-saving than conventional ones.
Less Noise:
Due to rotating fans and drives lot of noise is caused by the conventional computers, whereas an optical computer could be almost noiseless, since probably no fan will be needed and the light sources can be cooled with passive coolers and heat pipes built out of aluminum or copper.
Less Heat is Released:
Lasers are used as the source of light in the optical computers which consist of a small spectrum of different wavelengths. Depending on the field of application lasers have different needs of energy and produce heat to a greater or lesser extent.
Less Wear:
Conventional computers uses moving parts such as fans, hard disk drives and conventional optical removable storage in which friction is produced, because of which the mechanical parts wear out. Break and optical computers do not need fans, as optical processor does not heat up.
High Parallelism:
Optical computers can be built with higher bandwidth and within one data path several data sets can be transmitted parallel at the same time using different wavelengths or polarizations. The higher parallelism and the superior velocity of light allow extreme processing speeds.
Due to all the above benefits, optical computing is being widely used.
Using light instead of electric current to build a computer brings lots of advantages and the following are the advantages of the optical computers:
Higher Performance:
Velocity of the light is higher when compared to the electricity used in the conventional computers and this property of the light makes the optical computer to perform high than the conventional computer. This is one of the most significant advantage of the optical computer.
Consumption is Less:
Computers of the present day consume a lot of energy, for instance, modern CPUs often need over 80 watts in idle state, around 120 watts in normal use and up to 250 watts in performance mode. Optical computers have the potential to be more power-saving than conventional ones.
Less Noise:
Due to rotating fans and drives lot of noise is caused by the conventional computers, whereas an optical computer could be almost noiseless, since probably no fan will be needed and the light sources can be cooled with passive coolers and heat pipes built out of aluminum or copper.
Less Heat is Released:
Lasers are used as the source of light in the optical computers which consist of a small spectrum of different wavelengths. Depending on the field of application lasers have different needs of energy and produce heat to a greater or lesser extent.
Less Wear:
Conventional computers uses moving parts such as fans, hard disk drives and conventional optical removable storage in which friction is produced, because of which the mechanical parts wear out. Break and optical computers do not need fans, as optical processor does not heat up.
High Parallelism:
Optical computers can be built with higher bandwidth and within one data path several data sets can be transmitted parallel at the same time using different wavelengths or polarizations. The higher parallelism and the superior velocity of light allow extreme processing speeds.
Due to all the above benefits, optical computing is being widely used.
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