Laser device could be key to faster computer; making calculations with light pulses, not by electricity
Article Abstract:
AT and T Bell Laboratories introduces an experimental machine that uses light pulses rather than electrical current to perform calculations. Although the machine is rudimentary, it forms the basis for research into optical computers, which could perform at speeds up to 1,000 times faster than conventional computers. Optical computers are expected on the market by the beginning of the next century. Research performed by Bell Laboratories under Alan Huang is the world's most advanced effort. The new device is less than 12 inches high and the size of a dining room tabletop. It consists of a network of lasers, lenses and mirrors instead of circuit boards and microchips. Laser beams are switched on and off in combination with other arrays of lasers to perform simple addition and subtraction. Beams of light which pass through each other will eliminate bottlenecks that slow conventional computers.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1990
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Pioneering the computer frontier
Article Abstract:
David E Liddle, former IBM executive and Metaphor Computer Systems founder, and Paul G. Allen, Microsoft Corp co-founder, are establishing the Interval Research Corp to pioneer new research that goes beyond Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center's philosophy. The new firm will focus on technologies that have commercial applications. Interval is being set up as a for-profit company and intends to shape a new vision for the computer industry by incorporating advanced technologies. Interval is financed through the year 2002. The firm's research, intended to impact the computer industry in five to ten years, will be a way for Allen to return the benefits he has reaped through Microsoft. Interval will be able to research technology with a freedom that corporations lack, and will be able to license its discoveries.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1992
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Plan to overtake the fastest computer
Article Abstract:
Computer researcher Eugene D. Brooks, working at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, wants to show that software written for supercomputers can be used by many microprocessor chips working together, yielding a supercomputer's speed. Supercomputers use costly customized circuits that are expensive to manufacture. Several supercomputer manufacturers currently are designing supercomputers to be released in the mid 1990s, with prices ranging between $20 million and $60 million. These supercomputers could become obsolete even before they are built if Brooks's theories prove correct. Brooks's three-year project is funded with $10 million.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1990
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