Can Photonic Computing be the Answer to Green and Sustainable Computing?

Abstract

For decades now, processing speed has been consistently rising. The top supercomputer, Summit, today, can perform 148,600 trillion calculations in one second (148.6 PF on LINPAC). Exascale supercomputers that can perform more than one million trillion (quintillion) calculations per second are planned for 2021. However, this smooth ride is almost over with the end of Moore’s Law and Dennard’s Scaling due to the increased power consumption and leakage. Scientists believe that we are reaching serious physical limits. Innovative ideas in device technology and architectures are a must for the next generation of computing. Photonic devices are characterized by their speed and ultra-low power. In this talk we examine the use of alternative Photonic computing architectures based on these devices, on the chip, to solve many critical science and engineering problems, including Partial Differential Equations (the basis for scientific and engineering simulations) and machine learning. We use this to examine the potential and progress needed to reap the full benefits of this technology and move it to becoming a main stream fast green computing alternative.