🚀 Microsoft unveils an analog optical computer (AOC) for AI!
A team of four Microsoft researchers spent four years developing this breakthrough system, capable of solving AI tasks using simple LEDs—like those in smartphones.
🔑 Key highlights:
• ⚡ 500 tera-operations per watt — over 100× more efficient than NVIDIA’s H100
• ⏱️ One iteration in just 20 nanoseconds
• 🔋 Only 2 femtojoules per operation
• 🌡️ Runs at room temperature using micro-LEDs
The AOC combines analog electronics with 3D optical architectures, performing matrix multiplications optically, while complex calculations remain on silicon.
✨ Advantages over quantum computing:
• ✅ 100% accuracy on binary tasks, 95%+ on mixed tasks
• ⚖️ Quantum systems manage only 40–60% on similar problems
• 🏆 Beat records from the QPLIB benchmark, solving optimization tasks with 500+ binary and 10,000+ continuous variables
• No cryogenics needed — works at room temperature!
The race is on: which will reach the market first — optical or quantum computing?
#Microsoft #OpticalComputing #Photonics #AI
A team of four Microsoft researchers spent four years developing this breakthrough system, capable of solving AI tasks using simple LEDs—like those in smartphones.
🔑 Key highlights:
• ⚡ 500 tera-operations per watt — over 100× more efficient than NVIDIA’s H100
• ⏱️ One iteration in just 20 nanoseconds
• 🔋 Only 2 femtojoules per operation
• 🌡️ Runs at room temperature using micro-LEDs
The AOC combines analog electronics with 3D optical architectures, performing matrix multiplications optically, while complex calculations remain on silicon.
✨ Advantages over quantum computing:
• ✅ 100% accuracy on binary tasks, 95%+ on mixed tasks
• ⚖️ Quantum systems manage only 40–60% on similar problems
• 🏆 Beat records from the QPLIB benchmark, solving optimization tasks with 500+ binary and 10,000+ continuous variables
• No cryogenics needed — works at room temperature!
The race is on: which will reach the market first — optical or quantum computing?
#Microsoft #OpticalComputing #Photonics #AI
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💡 Scientists Made a Semiconductor That Can Be Reprogrammed With Light
Most computer chips are born with a fixed job. Once a semiconductor is fabricated, its electrical properties are largely locked in.
Researchers at Princeton have now created an ultrathin semiconductor — only a few molecules thick — that can repeatedly change how it conducts electricity in response to different wavelengths of light. The effect is reversible, meaning the material can be programmed, erased and programmed again.
The team achieved this by combining a two-dimensional semiconductor with light-sensitive molecules that physically change shape when illuminated. Those molecular changes alter the semiconductor’s electronic and optical behavior. And unlike a simple binary switch, the response can be adjusted gradually rather than just flipped between “0” and “1.”
The researchers have already produced uniform samples about one inch across and built arrays of programmable electronic switches. Their next goal is to connect them into functioning circuits.
The broader idea is striking: instead of manufacturing a chip for one fixed purpose, future electronics might be able to change their own physical behavior after they are built.
Software is already reprogrammable.
Now the hardware itself is starting to learn the trick.
#Semiconductors #Computing #MaterialsScience #Photonics #Technology #Science
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aee1510
Most computer chips are born with a fixed job. Once a semiconductor is fabricated, its electrical properties are largely locked in.
Researchers at Princeton have now created an ultrathin semiconductor — only a few molecules thick — that can repeatedly change how it conducts electricity in response to different wavelengths of light. The effect is reversible, meaning the material can be programmed, erased and programmed again.
The team achieved this by combining a two-dimensional semiconductor with light-sensitive molecules that physically change shape when illuminated. Those molecular changes alter the semiconductor’s electronic and optical behavior. And unlike a simple binary switch, the response can be adjusted gradually rather than just flipped between “0” and “1.”
The researchers have already produced uniform samples about one inch across and built arrays of programmable electronic switches. Their next goal is to connect them into functioning circuits.
The broader idea is striking: instead of manufacturing a chip for one fixed purpose, future electronics might be able to change their own physical behavior after they are built.
Software is already reprogrammable.
Now the hardware itself is starting to learn the trick.
#Semiconductors #Computing #MaterialsScience #Photonics #Technology #Science
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aee1510
Science Advances
Large-area, photo-programmable 2D semiconductors with chromic molecular functionalization
Large-area films of atomically thin hybrid heterostructures enable light-programmable electronics.
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