Abstract

A digital circuit can be implemented with a global linear transformation and a point non-linearity. Several suggestions, and a few experimental demonstrations, have shown that, by using optics to implement the global transformation part, hybrid opto-electronic digital processors can be built (1,2). Though such hybrid systems are still limited by the switching time of the electro-optical or electronic point-non-linear part of the system, their overall throughput can benefit from the inherent parallelism of lightwave communication, particularily when a free-space, three dimentional, optical configuration is being used; unlike conventional electronic gate-arrays, these hybrid opto-electronic ones have no “design rules” that limit the complexity and generality of their interconnections.

© 1988 Optical Society of America