(Image source: Internet)
The new computer is a computer that uses light rather than electricity. It can perform calculations faster, consume less energy and require very little space.
Computer chip consists of millions or billions of logic gates. These tiny components perform the most basic operations, such as checking whether one data matches another. By combining these gates in large quantities, you can manage tasks such as downloading files, playing videos, or running computer games .
Traditional chips work by transmitting electrons, but , Yi , of the University of Aalto, Finland, and his colleagues have successfully created optical logic gates that can perform the same functions through light.
optical computers have been created before, but they involve complex hardware and are limited to the use of certain applications. Zhang Yi said that these new doors can be made from molybdenum disulfide crystals with a single layer of only 0.65 nanometers in thickness and can be designed to perform universal tasks in small packages.
Since photons move faster in the circuit than electrons, they can speed up the calculation speed, and they have no resistance when they move, so they can do the same job with less energy.
The team uses circularly polarized light. This involves a light wave that rotates clockwise or counterclockwise about its travel axis. The traditional -bit in computers consists of positive or negative charges, represented by 0 or 1. However, in this new optical computer, the bits are represented by clockwise polarized light or counterclockwise polarized light.
In an optical computer, logic gate is made of crystal material that is sensitive to the rotation direction of these polarized beams. Using filter and other components, these doors can be built to rebuild traditional doors.
The team also showed working light gates that recreate traditional gates called XNOR, NOR, AND, XOR, OR, and NAND that perform different operations on the data. The researchers also said that data can be operated in parallel rather than in series, which would pave the way for a substantial increase in computing efficiency and speed.
Zhang Yi said: "We hope to manufacture all-optical computers in the future. The biggest advantage is that optical chip is much faster than traditional chips. In addition, light has the ability to process in parallel and consumes less energy, while electronic devices consume more energy due to resistance."
Zhang Yi said that since a common branch of quantum computing research has used photons to transmit data, in the future, we will study how to use optical logic gates to create mixed classical and quantum computers , or create optical quantum logic gates.
compiled: Huike
edited: Muyi
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