Abstract

An importened aspect in the design of a new processor type is the data coding or the way, data are represented. Questions to consider are compatability, the data type (such as numeric or non-numeric data), and certainly also the processor type (i.e optical or electronic). The binary data representation is known to be most efficient for electronic computers. Far optical computers this does not have to be true necessarily. One of the strengths of optics is that it is two-dimensional whereas electronics is zero-dimensional. Symbolic substitution ¹ is a kind of spatial logic which we think is tailored well to the capabilities of optics in addition to being efficient, flexible, and compatible to binary coding. In this paper we explain the principle of symbolic substitution and then discuss an optical processor based on this technique.

© 1985 Optical Society of America