Many people had been anticipating a future of all-optical computers connected via all-optical networks, a nirvana of high performance combined with low error rates and lower power consumption and heat dissipation. We’re sorry to be naysayers, but you can stop holding your breath waiting for this to happen.
All the same, one should not lose heart. There are plenty of opportunities to exploit the wonderful characteristics of optics in a hybrid electronic-optical world.
First, PICs have unleashed a tremendous surge in innovation. In 2005, the optical research community wrote a report for the National Science Foundation on research problems for the next five years and next 10 years. Three years later, some of those research problems are solved and in products! As a result, the amount of data we can push through an individual fiber is increasing sharply. We’re also able to manage that capacity with increasing sophistication. These results are probably only the low-hanging fruit of what PICs have enabled, and we’re likely to see more innovation in coming years. If your biggest concern is getting lots of bandwidth with low error rates, the future looks very good indeed.
Second, optical logic continues to develop new capabilities. We offer two examples to show the range of work. At Harvard a few years ago, researchers were able to slow and then stop (hold stationary) a pulse of light. The immediately visible opportunities are for better optical memories and to manage data rates inside a device.
More opportunities will no doubt appear. A much more concrete effort is the DARPA-funded OAWG (Optical Arbitrary Waveform Generation) program. OAWG seeks to build radically improved optical transceivers, capable of producing optical pulses that are more coherent and have less noise. These transceivers would allow us to pack more optical channels into a fiber, because we would need smaller gaps between channel frequencies to protect ourselves from cross-channel noise.
In summary, the future of optical technology is bright. It just isn’t taking the path to the future that many of us imagined or hoped for. Q
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CHARLES BEELER is a venture-capital investor with El Dorado Ventures, where his primary focus is on companies with the potential to radically change the capabilities, cost/performance, and energy efficiency of data centers and enterprise computing environments. Beeler has also served as a partner at Piper Jaffray Ventures, helping to manage technology funds, and at Scripps Ventures. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Colby College and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. DR. CRAIG PARTRIDGE is a former chair of ACM SIG-COMM and, long ago, was editor-in-chief of ACM Computer Communication Review. An ACM Fellow, he is chief scientist for networking research at BBN Technologies. © 2009 ACM 1542-7730 /09/0200 $5.00
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