Energy efficient computing exploiting the properties of light
Joseph Shamir · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2013
Significant reduction of energy dissipation in computing can be achieved by addressing the theoretical lower limit of energy consumption and replacing arrays of traditional Boolean logic gates by other methods of implementing logic operations. In particular, a slight modification of the concept of computing allows the incorporation of fundamentally lossless optical processes as part of the computing operation. While the introduced new concepts can be implemented electronically or by other means, using optics eliminates also energy dissipation involved in the translation of electric charges. A possible realization of the indicated concepts is based on directed logic networks composed of reversible optical logic gate arrays.