3 ms·

This is pretty cool. I don't know the nature of the calculation performed, but if it's an integral that took say 1000 clock cycles on a single core 1Ghz digital

This is pretty cool. I don't know the nature of the calculation performed, but if it's an integral that took say 1000 clock cycles on a single core 1Ghz digital computer, and if it's true that the meta-material will scale down 1 picosecond for the same calculation, then this is around a 1,000,000x speedup. Further, if you can create a set of say 100 integrators and differentiators into which you can decompose all your complicated math operations, then you have yourself a very very fast general purpose higher order math module.

wwarner 8y ago
Published in Science as well http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6433/1333 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6433/1333
opwieurposiu 8y ago
Those 1000 clock cycles get you a perfect digital answer that is the same every time. This analog version gets you a faster answer with less accuracy and repeatability. This may be useful in some situations, but I would not call it general purpose.
- wwarner 8y ago
  I'm just speculating, but I don't see why you can't quantize the output electrically. I guess I'm suggesting a mixed mode system, where an electronic cpu sends an array of values to an optical system that performs a calculation and returns a result electronically.
  - opwieurposiu 8y ago
    Sure you can quantize the output but that is not going to help your accuracy. Today's Ghz CPU is 64bit, today's Ghz ADCs are 8 to 16bits. This gets you ~3 to ~5 decimal sig figs for analog and ~15.9 decimal sig figs for 64bit floating point. That's assuming your analog side is perfect, which is unlikely to say the least. http://www.ti.com/data-converters/adc-circuit/high-speed/rf-sampling.html http://www.ti.com/data-converters/adc-circuit/high-speed/rf-... Also note the fast ones require 1+ watts per channel and cost $700+ each. Not cheap in power or in money.

wwarner 8y ago

Published in Science as well http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6433/1333 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6433/1333

opwieurposiu 8y ago

Those 1000 clock cycles get you a perfect digital answer that is the same every time. This analog version gets you a faster answer with less accuracy and repeatability. This may be useful in some situations, but I would not call it general purpose.

wwarner 8y ago
I'm just speculating, but I don't see why you can't quantize the output electrically. I guess I'm suggesting a mixed mode system, where an electronic cpu sends an array of values to an optical system that performs a calculation and returns a result electronically.
- opwieurposiu 8y ago
  Sure you can quantize the output but that is not going to help your accuracy. Today's Ghz CPU is 64bit, today's Ghz ADCs are 8 to 16bits. This gets you ~3 to ~5 decimal sig figs for analog and ~15.9 decimal sig figs for 64bit floating point. That's assuming your analog side is perfect, which is unlikely to say the least. http://www.ti.com/data-converters/adc-circuit/high-speed/rf-sampling.html http://www.ti.com/data-converters/adc-circuit/high-speed/rf-... Also note the fast ones require 1+ watts per channel and cost $700+ each. Not cheap in power or in money.