🚀 go-pugleaf

craig@sics.se (Craig Partridge) writes:

> For example, 1 terabit per second, on an 128-bit wide bit path is about a
> 0.1 ns clock cycle, which is only a modest improvement over what DEC
> reputedly hopes to achieve for Alpha clock cycles in the future.  Now going
> serial to parallel would presumably require some pico-second logic
> somewhere, but maybe that's possible.

The serial/parallel conversion might be handled with innovative techniques,
taking advantage of physics.  What is the physical distance between optical
pulses travelling through silicon (or some similar material)?  If that
distance is small enough, it might be possible to do a "flash" conversion,
with sensor elements in a linear optical path, each detecting whether there
was a positive optical pulse within it at the time of a central clock pulse.

Likewise, a linear array of laser elements could be pumped or not, according
to a digital word input.  A word-sized string of optical pulses could be sent
at once.

It needn't even require linear arrays.  Non-linear optical techniques could
stretch or shrink optical paths, or beam splitters, etc, could find a use.
Brute force "one optical emitter and detector plus shift registers"
techniques shouldn't be necessary.

Hmmm, should I patent this idea?  :)

--

Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca