Researchers develop device to speed up computers

Zee Media Bureau

Washington: Computers have certainly made our lives easier. Here is some more good news as researchers in the US have created a device that will speed up future computers by using both optical and electronic signals. The device will actually make your computer work at the speed of light, as in this computer processing will be done using electrical signals and the signal transfer will be done by optics. Thus, it will be able to process many steps in just a blink of the eye and provide the simplest outputs. This finding has major implications for performing computations, which, in simple terms, also rely on a series of on-off switches. The first device, called AND-gate, requires both an electronic and an optical input to generate an output. This switch only triggers if both elements are engaged. The second device, an OR-gate, can generate an output if either of two optical sensors is engaged. The third device works like the front-end of a camera sensor. It consists of 250,000 miniature devices assembled over a centimetre-by-centimetre surface; said the research published in the journal Nature Photonics. The research has been published in the journal Nature Photonics. (With Agency inputs)