History of General Purpose CPUs - 1990 To Today: Looking Forward - Optical Communication

Optical Communication

One interesting possibility would be to eliminate the front side bus. Modern vertical laser diodes enable this change. In theory, an optical computer's components could directly connect through a holographic or phased open-air switching system. This would provide a large increase in effective speed and design flexibility, and a large reduction in cost. Since a computer's connectors are also its most likely failure point, a busless system might be more reliable, as well.

In addition, current (2010) modern processors use 64- or 128-bit logic. Wavelength superposition could allow for data lanes and logic many orders of magnitude higher, without additional space or copper wires.

Read more about this topic:  History Of General Purpose CPUs, 1990 To Today: Looking Forward

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