What is a photon processor?

Photon processors are one of the practical uses of the developing field of photonics. With photonics, light is used as a medium to carry information. Photonics are working on the frequencies of the order of hundreds of terraces. Many start -ups develop different technologies that use the situation as soon as the mainstream market has a shift.

Luxtera, one of these startups, has planned production for an optical modulator that is used to turn electrons into photons for use in photon processors. They predict processors that quickly reach speeds of up to 10 GHz, ten times more speeds that Intel discussed for its latest optical modulators. These samples use a similar technology used in the G4 microprocessor (130 Nm SOI process). Members of their Board of Directors include the winner of the Arno Penzias and Eli Yablonovitch (Professor UCLA, who developed photoelectric crystals). Currently the costs are relatively high, but with the main players of all industriesLNO invested in the development of photon processing, the prices will undoubtedly drop as soon as the production begins.

Initially, photon processors are likely to be used only in top supercomputers to create virtually unbreakable cryptography and intense processors for movies and gaming sequences with a large budget. However, this technology should quickly run down to the consumer level, and we can see the HOPE 10-GHz processors at an affordable price of 2010-2015. Applications are virtually unlimited for such technology.