[extropy-chat] NEWS: optical processors

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003, Adrian Tymes wrote:

> Does anyone know if optical processors have the same
> vulnerability to radiation in orbit as electronic
> processors do?

I am not certain, but my impression is that the optical
processors function only in very specific DSP functions.
I.e. they are not "general" purpose processors.  If this
is accurate, they cannot replace "general purpose" command
and control functions in satellites, robots, etc.  Their
primary purpose would be in data integration, filtering,
etc.  I.e. computational tasks with a high degree of
parallel rather than serial operations.

That is not to say that they might not evolve into general
purpose computing functions but such functions are not
what optical methods are generally best at.  It may require
the development of an entirely different computing paradigm
(how can one multiplex many diverse computing paths?).  It
sounds like a PERT Chart data/resource-flow compression
nightmare and solving that is *not* going to be easy.

R.