Israeli Processor Computes at Speed of Light

[bloodline]

"HERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) - An Israeli start-up has developed a processor that uses optics instead of silicon, enabling it to compute at the speed of light..."

Optical CPU processing a reality.  Read more on Reuters.

[Linchpin]

Nice :-)

[gnarly]

I assume you mean Reuters?  :-)

[downix]

I remember an MIT project to build an optical computer once.  It was the size of a desk and had less performance than the average 8088.

[bloodline]

I assume you mean Reuters? :-)

Gah!!! my smelling pistakes :-P

[Glaucus]

Neat! Will it run OS4.0?!?  ;-)

  - Mike

[bloodline]

Yes the device is rather large but is does almost 150000000000000000000000000 Willy Flops*


*I may have invented that benckmark unit ;-)

[lorddef]

Willy Flops*

 :-D  :-D  :-D

[Animagic]

If it really is 1000 times faster than a regular CPU (what is a regular cpu? :-D ) then its a Lightwave renderers DREAM  :-o

[dammy]

Poster: Animagic Date: 2003/10/29 13:47:24

If it really is 1000 times faster than a regular CPU (what is a regular cpu?  ) then its a Lightwave renderers DREAM

It could be indeed, but it's far too early to tell where this light chip technology is in developement cycle.  Then again, if does see the "light" of day, the PPC fanatics will rip it to shreds as being inferior CPU that won't run *their* OS.

Dammy

[DanDude]

WHOA!

Run AmigaOS and games on this baby!  :-D

[sprocket]

There's a company in Columbia, Maryland in the U.S. that I'm aware has been working in this area for several years.

http://www.essexcorp.com/products.html

This stuff isn't new but I think getting it to market successfully isn't easy.

[CodeSmith]

@Dammy:

Conversely, if this CPU of theirs doesn't run Windows, they might as well just pack up and go home... no-one (other than maybe Sun or IBM) is going to use it.

[bloodline]

If the CPU is as good as they say, then why could it not run a 68K, PPC and x86 JIT emulator all at the same time ;-)

[amigamad]

who needs ppc with this kind of speed. :-)