Abstract

This paper discusses techniques for synchronizing and controlling fast digital optical and optoelectronic processors. When optical processors require significant amounts of control for proper operation, designers have traditionally resorted to electronic host computers. Such approaches are often inadequate because of high host computer cost, or the need for speed that an electronic host computer cannot deliver. We discuss how to design controllers in the optical or optoelectronic domain. Since data and control pulses must arrive in synchronization at all interaction points, system timing and resynchronization are discussed as the major problems to be solved in designing such systems. We present solutions to the problems of timing and resynchronizing high speed optical processors in the context of two system timing paradigms: the gate and strobe paradigm and the more recent time-of-flight paradigm. Gate and strobe designs are synchronized by gating the data pulses from storage element to storage element. Time of flight systems can be synchronized by pulse reshaping: resynchronization of the weakening pulse by retiming its leading and trailing edges and by clock gating: gating a fresh copy of the master clock signal to replace a weakening signal pulse.

© 1993 Optical Society of America