What classical optics can do for the digital optical computer

The Application of Free-Space Optical Interconnects to High Performance Communication Decoding

“…Several macro-optical approaches to shuffle interconnection networks have been proposed and demonstrated [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. There appears, however, to be a significant trade-off between the fundamental scaling benefits of 3-D free-space macrooptical approaches and the inherent arbitrary interconnection flexibility of space variant microoptical interconnection approaches.…”

“…The ability of optical elements to interconnect large arrays in space-variant patterns, without crosstalk in the medium, suggests that FSOI techniques are particularly promising for problems with high BB. In particular, optical space-variant approaches to performing high BB perfect shuffle [3] and related patterns have been studied for some time. [24,[4][5][6][7][8] Chip area requirements for high density, interconnection -limited integrated circuits were found to be proportional to BB 2 .…”

“…This is the same as Equation 24, except that an angular offset proportional to x c has been added. Assuming N=4 and an f/1 optical system, the term in parentheses is equal to 1.…”

Optical Symbolic Processor for Expert System Execution

“…A i network that is more sophisticated than the ring network but simpler than a fully-connected network is the replicated single-stage shuffle-exchange network. The shuffle-exchange network (SEN) appears attractive in terms of optics because of the relative ease with which the perfect shuffle can be implemented [44]. Purely from an architectural considnration, the throughput of a replicated SEN can be two orders higher than that of the ring network.…”

“…Lohmann [44] appears to have been the first to present an optical perfect shuffle design. He proposes a setup using prisms and lenses.…”