To combat challenges associated with increased data traffic in the ever growing digital age, researchers are developing new approaches which can cope with heavy traffic more efficiently. The light-based development is known as “photonic processors”.
"Our study is the first one to apply frequency combs in the field of artificially neural networks," says Prof. Wolfram Pernice from the Institute of Physics and the Center for Soft Nanoscience at the University of Münster.
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"The convolutional operation between input data and one or more filters -- which can be a highlighting of edges in a photo, for example -- can be transferred very well to our matrix architecture," explains Johannes Feldmann, the lead author of the study. "Exploiting light for signal transference enables the processor to perform parallel data processing through wavelength multiplexing, which leads to a higher computing density and many matrix multiplications being carried out in just one timestep. In contrast to traditional electronics, which usually work in the low GHz range, optical modulation speeds can be achieved with speeds up to the 50 to 100 GHz range."
Source: Science Daily