Optical and electrical-computing energy-use comparison

Christopher R. Cole

doi:10.1117/12.2615783

9 March 2022 Optical and electrical-computing energy-use comparison

Christopher R. Cole

Proceedings Volume PC12019, AI and Optical Data Sciences III; PC120190G (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2615783
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2022, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Optical computing has been proposed as a replacement for electrical computing to reduce energy use of math intensive programmable applications like machine learning. Objective energy use comparison requires that data transfer is separated from computing and made constant, with only computing variable. This shows that energy use is dominated by data transfer, and computing energy use is a small fraction of the total. Switching to optical from electrical programmable computing does not reduce energy use. This has been the case for years in optical communications, where optical computing has been entirely replaced by CMOS DSP.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Christopher R. Cole "Optical and electrical-computing energy-use comparison", Proc. SPIE PC12019, AI and Optical Data Sciences III, PC120190G (9 March 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2615783

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