Abstract

The modern trend of information treatment considers the operation rate in the range of Terabit/s. This task can be realized by means of parallel processing. Mentioned operation rate can be reached, for instance, if the optical pattern, containing 10⁶-10⁷ pixels, will be treated with the operation frequency of order 10⁵ frames/s. Among the basic elements of parallel optical processing the fast switch of optical images between number of channels has to be considered , apart from another necessary elements, e.g. fast reversable optical memory with the possibility to write, red and erase the patterns. The usual approach to patterns switching between optical channels is related with the recording the image by means of CCD video camera, with further treatment of electrical signal by means of electronic computer. This procedure is restricted with the operation rate of computer and usually is of order of 10⁸ bit/s.

© 1997 Optical Society of America