New Super Computer: Optics

Holtzman · Post by **Holtzman** » 2003-11-02 05:22pm

I thought this was a very interesting topic. In fact with this new model Pentium and company may be put out of business. Any thoughts?

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Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-11-02 05:30pm

I want one.

But it's inevitable that, unless Pentium and the like catch up and develop their own optical processors, they're going to lobby for government action that limits or outright blocks the sale of optical processors here in the US.

BoredShirtless · Post by **BoredShirtless** » 2003-11-02 05:34pm

Shinova wrote:I want one.

But it's inevitable that, unless Pentium and the like catch up and develop their own optical processors, they're going to lobby for government action that limits or outright blocks the sale of optical processors here in the US.

Irrelevent nitpick: Pentium is the name of a line of CPU's Intel churn out.

Holtzman · Post by **Holtzman** » 2003-11-02 06:11pm

Shinova wrote:I want one.

But it's inevitable that, unless Pentium and the like catch up and develop their own optical processors, they're going to lobby for government action that limits or outright blocks the sale of optical processors here in the US.

Don't the drug companies already do that with European drugs?

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-11-02 06:15pm

BoredShirtless wrote:Irrelevent nitpick: Pentium is the name of a line of CPU's Intel churn out.

Whoops. I knew I was thinking about Intel.

And drug companies do what with European drugs?

Holtzman · Post by **Holtzman** » 2003-11-02 06:20pm

They banned them from US shores to prevent competition. Like that new alzheimers drug. Been around for a long time in Europe but they only just released now.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2003-11-02 06:42pm

Holtzman wrote:I thought this was a very interesting topic. In fact with this new model Pentium and company may be put out of business. Any thoughts?

Article: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... nslet_dc_1[/url]

This isn't a general purpose processor but a DSP. The performace of these things is typically several hundred times higher then a programmable chip at certain operations, but they don't have the ability to do anything else because of their reliance on independent data threads. Graphics chips are much the same way.

Until we see an actual implementation of this chip, we won't have anything to go on besides the companie's word. Besides, Intel is well aware of the state of optical computing and will make the shift when it becomes appropriate to do so.

Holtzman · Post by **Holtzman** » 2003-11-02 06:44pm

The Kernel wrote:
Holtzman wrote:I thought this was a very interesting topic. In fact with this new model Pentium and company may be put out of business. Any thoughts?

Article: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... nslet_dc_1[/url]
This isn't a general purpose processor but a DSP. The performace of these things is typically several hundred times higher then a programmable chip at certain operations, but they don't have the ability to do anything else because of their reliance on independent data threads. Graphics chips are much the same way.

Until we see an actual implementation of this chip, we won't have anything to go on besides the companie's word. Besides, Intel is well aware of the state of optical computing and will make the shift when it becomes appropriate to do so.

They are producing a palm sized chip. So you never know..

Post by **Colonel Olrik** » 2003-11-02 07:04pm

This forum is for news of political flavour, this thread is somewhat displaced here. Moved to GC.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-11-02 07:23pm

You're wrong, Orlik! Wrong wrong wrong!

What we need is an entirely new forum for this thread

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-11-02 07:24pm

One problem is that optical computers are quite fragile... How fast are these compared to Quantum Computers?

Holtzman · Post by **Holtzman** » 2003-11-02 07:27pm

No idea but has anyone ever invented a quantom computer yet? If not then we can only guess. You know I think that if this actually continues the whole computer forum might need to rethink gaming as a whole. It could happen...

Hobot · Post by **Hobot** » 2003-11-02 08:01pm

Quantum computers are a long way off, the next big revolution is photonics.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-11-02 08:15pm

Holtzman wrote:No idea but has anyone ever invented a quantom computer yet? If not then we can only guess. You know I think that if this actually continues the whole computer forum might need to rethink gaming as a whole. It could happen...

I believe they have working small-scale models. IIRC, there's one at MIT.

Holtzman · Post by **Holtzman** » 2003-11-02 08:17pm

Exonerate wrote:
Holtzman wrote:No idea but has anyone ever invented a quantom computer yet? If not then we can only guess. You know I think that if this actually continues the whole computer forum might need to rethink gaming as a whole. It could happen...
I believe they have working small-scale models. IIRC, there's one at MIT.

Interesting. I hope I get to see a personal version in my lifetime. WAHHHHH!!!

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2003-11-02 09:21pm

Holtzman wrote:No idea but has anyone ever invented a quantom computer yet? If not then we can only guess. You know I think that if this actually continues the whole computer forum might need to rethink gaming as a whole. It could happen...

NEC and the RIKEN institute have recently produced the first CNOT gate. (Controlled NOT).

CNOT gates are the basic building blocks of a quantum computer, just like AND/OR gates are the basics of a semiconductor based one, since they are the basic conditional between two qubits. (quantum bits, which, unlike the regular variety, can have a value of 0 and 1 at the same time).

Practical quantum computing is still a long way away (between 10 and 100 years, says Eiichi Maruyama, head of RIKEN's Frontier Research System), but now the basic conditional logic gate can be produced, and they're working towards the first universal gate and the first quantum algorithm.

The EnLight 256 is, as has already been said, not a CPU type microprocessor, but it is the first practical application of optical computing to be shipped.

Lenslet say that the EnLight can produce 8 trillion calculations per second. a 100 qubit quantum device could theoretically perform one trillion trillion operations simultaneously, working on a 15 picosecond time pulse.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-11-03 05:34am

I want to be able to destroy hundreds of universes in my Dell Quantum computer when I turn it on, muhahahha

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2003-11-03 06:46am

Vendetta wrote: just like AND/OR gates are the basics of a semiconductor based one,

Nitpick: Actually they typically use 1 type of logical gate: NAND (Not And). Ans every other logical arangment can be biult from that.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2003-11-03 01:17pm

ggs wrote:
Vendetta wrote: just like AND/OR gates are the basics of a semiconductor based one,
Nitpick: Actually they typically use 1 type of logical gate: NAND (Not And). Ans every other logical arangment can be biult from that.

Nitpicking the nitpick: Actually, you can build every logic term using either NAND or NOR gates. However, NOR gates are more expensive to build, so all logic is built from NAND gates.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2003-11-03 01:23pm

The Kernel wrote:
Holtzman wrote:I thought this was a very interesting topic. In fact with this new model Pentium and company may be put out of business. Any thoughts?

Article: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... nslet_dc_1[/url]
This isn't a general purpose processor but a DSP. The performace of these things is typically several hundred times higher then a programmable chip at certain operations, but they don't have the ability to do anything else because of their reliance on independent data threads. Graphics chips are much the same way.

Until we see an actual implementation of this chip, we won't have anything to go on besides the companie's word. Besides, Intel is well aware of the state of optical computing and will make the shift when it becomes appropriate to do so.

That's right. What the company is building is an optical-based DSP board. Unlike a general purpose CPU like a Pentium, which is designed to do anything that is within reason and is designed to do it with marginal competency, a DSP processor is a specialized processor. All it does is are the sorts of computations needed for signal processing. And it does this very well. However, what a DSP chip won't do is general-purpose computing.

Holtzman · Post by **Holtzman** » 2003-11-03 06:35pm

But can it be used for that? Of refined?

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New Super Computer: Optics

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