5 ms·

Can you elaborate on why and where you believe they will make a comeback?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
adamnemecek 8y ago
They can solve optimization problems better than digital computers. It's a wholly different paradigm, for example the analog sorting algorithm has a runtime of O(n). It's called spaghetti sort. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_sort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_sort There used to be electric analog computers. I've been working on an analog photonic computer (very theoretically so far) that I think could work. Do you know how many electrons you move when you execute an instruction? It's like on the order of 10^18. I might be able to get away with a couple of photons.
- Vekz 8y ago
  Please keep us all updated on your work. Would love to see some blog posts or something.
  - adamnemecek 8y ago
    Lol you can bet that if I manage to pull this off you'll hear about it. The problem with blogging about this is that it diverges from current status quite a bit and as a result I've been called a crackpot. But I'll show them all lol.
    - alfredallan1 8y ago
      Oh I wouldn’t worry about it. Pretty much 100% of all successful inventors have, at one stage or another, been considered crackpots. Not 100% of crackpots are successful inventors though. Just blog with a pseudonym, so your real life credibility isn’t compromised.
    - quickben 8y ago
      For semi-related (?) work IBM did some research on photonics inside a CPU.
- gitgud 8y ago
  Considering the high cost of developing new analogue hardware, wouldn't it be cheaper to virtualize this on digital processors anyway? Also there appears to be some dispute on the validity of "Spaghetti sort" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Spaghetti_sort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Spaghetti_sort
  - adamnemecek 8y ago
    You won't get the gains from using only a few photons vs 10^18 electrons.
    - yiyus 8y ago
      Is there a shortage of electrons I am not aware of?
      - adamnemecek 8y ago
        You can pack 10^18 times more computation with the same size.
        gitgud 8y ago
        So the physical components could be smaller? I guess my point is that unless you can take advantage of traditional chip architectures or manufacturing, it may take an immense amount of effort to develop something close to their component density.
        adamnemecek 8y ago
        Amongst other yes. The main advantage is that you aren't dealing with metals but with photonic crystals. These don't heat up so you can build a cubic meter sized CPU theoretically.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

They can solve optimization problems better than digital computers. It's a wholly different paradigm, for example the analog sorting algorithm has a runtime of O(n). It's called spaghetti sort. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_sort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_sort There used to be electric analog computers. I've been working on an analog photonic computer (very theoretically so far) that I think could work. Do you know how many electrons you move when you execute an instruction? It's like on the order of 10^18. I might be able to get away with a couple of photons.

Vekz 8y ago
Please keep us all updated on your work. Would love to see some blog posts or something.
- adamnemecek 8y ago
  Lol you can bet that if I manage to pull this off you'll hear about it. The problem with blogging about this is that it diverges from current status quite a bit and as a result I've been called a crackpot. But I'll show them all lol.
  - alfredallan1 8y ago
    Oh I wouldn’t worry about it. Pretty much 100% of all successful inventors have, at one stage or another, been considered crackpots. Not 100% of crackpots are successful inventors though. Just blog with a pseudonym, so your real life credibility isn’t compromised.
  - quickben 8y ago
    For semi-related (?) work IBM did some research on photonics inside a CPU.
gitgud 8y ago
Considering the high cost of developing new analogue hardware, wouldn't it be cheaper to virtualize this on digital processors anyway? Also there appears to be some dispute on the validity of "Spaghetti sort" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Spaghetti_sort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Spaghetti_sort
- adamnemecek 8y ago
  You won't get the gains from using only a few photons vs 10^18 electrons.
  - yiyus 8y ago
    Is there a shortage of electrons I am not aware of?
    - adamnemecek 8y ago
      You can pack 10^18 times more computation with the same size.
      - gitgud 8y ago
        So the physical components could be smaller? I guess my point is that unless you can take advantage of traditional chip architectures or manufacturing, it may take an immense amount of effort to develop something close to their component density.
        adamnemecek 8y ago
        Amongst other yes. The main advantage is that you aren't dealing with metals but with photonic crystals. These don't heat up so you can build a cubic meter sized CPU theoretically.