Akhetonics Photonic Computing: 1,000x Faster CPUs (medium.com)
46 points by peter_d_sherman 3 days ago
amelius 3 hours ago
So they have some kind of nonlinear material that can make light modulate other light, that they managed to get working at teraherz frequencies?
Sounds incredible, as in: can't believe it.
By the way, isn't Nvidia researching this?
ziofill 2 hours ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear_optics
Very real stuff (I have a PhD on this)
oersted 25 minutes ago
This is the third sentence.
> Typically, in order to observe nonlinear phenomena, an intensity of the electromagnetic field of light larger than 108 V/m (and thus comparable to the atomic electric field of ~1011 V/m) is required.
I don’t know anything about this field. Can you address this point? How close are we to overcoming this in academia?
amelius 15 minutes ago
Y_Y an hour ago
At milliwatt power, and terahertz frequency?
PowerElectronix an hour ago
amelius an hour ago
I mean, researchers have been trying for years, what is different now?
octoberfranklin 3 hours ago
Yes; this material is called "snake oil".
amelius 3 hours ago
Let's see if the investors bite.
wartywhoa23 2 hours ago
jurschreuder 2 hours ago
It's just as if he had the brilliant idea to do photonics as an outcast even though there is already a 6" wafer semi-production level fablab being built for it in The Netherlands. There is even a version of TinyTapeout for Photonics.
Y_Y an hour ago
What's this photonic Tiny Tapeout?
1e1a an hour ago
Finally! This paves the way towards practical BrainF*** execution.
9dev 10 minutes ago
We're all adults here, you can spell out BrainFuck just fine.
himata4113 2 hours ago
This comes up every couple of years, but it hasn't seem to have made any advances since the first time I've seen this.
akifbayram 2 hours ago
The channel's other uploads may be giving us a glimpse into this project's future.
JoshTriplett 2 hours ago
Yup. UFO conspiracies, aliens on the moon, PSI...
georgeburdell 41 minutes ago
I didn’t read but I’d also like to point out photonics are 1000x larger than leading edge electronics with minimal path to scaling smaller. I don’t see a free lunch
userbinator 19 minutes ago
Basically the density of early CPUs (1970s), but 1000x faster than those, or current CPUs? Like a 1GHz 6502, or a 1THz 6502? The former is not really better, but the latter might interesting.
gchamonlive 32 minutes ago
There ain't no free lunch, but real progress rarely depend on it. It's usually lunch we weren't eating before, or a different way to eat the same lunch but with much more satisfaction.
12ah5kl 4 hours ago
Interesting topic, unreadable due to sloppification.
flecomet 39 minutes ago
"The first thing to understand about Akhetonics’ optical computer is that it’s not one thing yet." Great, that is such a good explanation. Thanks ChatGPT I guess.
yuhmahp 3 hours ago
Now it's a good case to use your own ai to un-sloppify
dvh 3 hours ago
> Photonics
So also 1000x smaller integration
amelius 3 hours ago
Why?
dvh 27 minutes ago
Light is hundreds of nanometers, smallest "transistor" cannot be much smaller than wavelength.
Y_Y an hour ago
In honour of Akhenaten? Cool.
nekusar 22 minutes ago
References of Akhenaten is making rounds in modern pagan/occult circles as well. The "Law of One" group is really pushing ancient Egyptian 'pyramid power' stuff.
natas 3 hours ago
This has been tried by Cray like 15 years ago and the university of Colorado 11 years ago; there were also other initiatives, all failed.
I'm not excluding that now we have more budget/time/AI to make it work (if it can), I'd just say exercise caution reading this (very AI slop) article (and anything that looks too good to be true)
mbfg 4 hours ago
interesting that it is still 2 bit
kmoser an hour ago
Do you mean as opposed to operating in an analog fashion? My guess is because keeping it digital means it is as close a possible to a drop-in replacement for today's electronic digital computers, including all the firmware, OS, and software that has already been written for them.
spwa4 15 minutes ago
If you're looking for the limits of this approach: it's about 1000x faster than electric BUT the individual components have to be way larger (and can't be shrinked down)
... which hopefully means a LOT of fabs will be able to produce these (because a 2nm node makes no sense for this)
It also means this will be incredible for radio chips, interconnects, that sort of thing and will do exactly nothing for the first 20 years for cpu's, never mind gpus.
metalman 2 hours ago
akhetonics-photonic-computing 1000x-faster-cpus, in mice