On 4/12/2011 7:15, Invisible wrote:
> So if this technology is the future... where is it? How come it's completely
> vanished off the face of existence?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_computing

> There seemed to be some suggesting that the entire IC might work by
> processing light instead of electricity. I'm sceptical about whether that
> could work. I'm not aware of any light-based switching technology.

The very effect that makes you not need wires means the entire IC can't work 
with nothing but light. You don't need wires because photons don't interact 
with each other - they only interact with electrons. Hence, you can't easily 
switch light without involving electricity.

> On the other hand, just using light for implementing long-range connections?
> That could *totally* work!

You mean, like, microwave communication towers and fiber optic cable? Yeah, 
that would be cool if someone were using that, wouldn't it? It might even 
eventually trickle down to consumers - maybe they'll put that in USB 3.0 or 
something.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Coding without comments is like
    driving without turn signals."

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