A team of engineers at Penn has just unveiled a technology that might just set a new course for the future of computing. Their creation, a chip that leverages light for artificial intelligence (AI) computations, stands to dramatically boost processing speeds while slashing energy use.
The new chip also promises enhanced privacy for the users
At the heart of this innovation is the field of silicon-photonics (SiPh), a domain where silicon, the abundant and cost-effective material at the core of traditional computer chips, meets the extraordinary capacity to manipulate light. This union draws upon the pioneering work of Penn Professor Nader Engheta, who has explored how materials can be fine-tuned at the nanoscale to carry out complex mathematical operations using light waves.
This chip isn’t just another step in technology’s march forward; it represents a potential paradigm shift. Traditional computing chips, despite their advancements, still hew closely to concepts established in the 1960s. The new chip, however, operates on an entirely different principle, performing calculations at the unparalleled speed of light.
The development of this chip was a collaborative effort, with significant contributions from Firooz Aflatouni, Associate Professor in Electrical and Systems Engineering at Penn. The team focused on enabling the chip to execute vector-matrix multiplication—a key process underpinning neural networks, which are vital for the AI applications that increasingly influence our daily lives.
One of the chip’s ingenious features is its design, which achieves computational magic by altering the height of the silicon wafer in certain areas. This allows light to scatter in precise patterns, facilitating the rapid execution of mathematical operations.
Beyond its potential for blazing-fast computation and reduced power consumption, the chip also promises enhanced privacy. Its capacity to perform numerous calculations simultaneously—without needing to store data in a computer’s working memory—could make future computers using this technology nearly impossible to hack. Now, all we can do is wait to see when this chip will start being incorporated in our daily devices, and one thing is for sure, that can take a lot of time.
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