Powerful optical home supercomputers will appear in 2020

In the near future, if Optalysys succeeds, compact and environmentally friendly optical computers capable of quadrillion operations per second (exaflops) can appear at home. The company claims that in a few months it will be able to show a working prototype of an optical computer with a processing power of 346 gigaflops. Of course, this is not as fast as a supercomputer, but it is enough to prove the possibility of a concept of optical computers.

Portal Engadget decided to share information about how it works. A low-power laser is guided through the layer of liquid crystal lattices, which changes the light intensity according to the data entered by the user into the data computer. As a result, the received variable intensity is transformed by a computer into a language understandable to it and can be used to solve mathematical equations and perform other tasks. By dispersing the laser beam through a variety of similar liquid crystal lattices, the system will be much more efficient in performing parallel tasks, compared to the same multiprocessor supercomputers.

In addition, such a system will require a very small amount of energy consumed, which will save a large part of the budget. Compared to the same Tianhe 2 supercomputer, which consumes millions of dollars of electricity annually, an optical computer of the same power will consume only a few thousand dollars.

After launching a prototype optical system, Optalysys plans to build on its basis two products: an optical coprocessor "for large data", which can be used in existing supercomputers, as well as a stand-alone high-grade optical supercomputer.

The company hopes that its optical supercomputer will be able to reach a capacity of 9 petaflops by 2017, and by 2020 - 17,100 petaflops (17.1 exaflops). For comparison, the current capacity of "Tianhe-2" is "only" about 34 petaflops.

Of course, while Optalysys plans seem to be fantastic, but with the first direct evidence of its potential, we will be able to meet in January next year, when the company will present the first prototype of its optical computer.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/technology/moshhnye-opticheskie-domashnie-superkompyutery-poyavyatsya-v-2020-godu.html.