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Optical computing

Photonic neural networks

Nature Physics volume 8, pages 257–259 (2012)Cite this article

Optical computers will be more interesting if they take advantage of phenomena that are unique to optics. In this respect, telecommunications hardware might have something to offer.

In the centenary of his birth, we celebrate Alan Turing (www.nature.com/turing) for inventing the revolutionary concept of computational universality. Turing's falsifiable definition of what a general-purpose computer can do is still widely accepted today. Scientists and engineers have yet to build a physical computer whose entire computing repertoire cannot be simulated by Turing's gedanken computer from 1936.

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Figure 1: Optical computing.

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. Damien Woods is at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

    Damien Woods

  2. Thomas J. Naughton is in the Department of Computer Science and Callan Institute, National University of Ireland Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland

    Thomas J. Naughton

Authors
  1. Damien Woods
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  2. Thomas J. Naughton
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Damien Woods or Thomas J. Naughton.

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Woods, D., Naughton, T. Photonic neural networks. Nature Phys 8, 257–259 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2283

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