A huge nest of wires

Optical technologies, in the form of fiber-optic cables, have been used to transmit data for two decades. When you speak into your telephone handset, your voice is translated into electrical impulses and sent to a switching device at the phone company, which (in some cases) translates the impulses into digital form. The digital data then flashes across fiber-optic lines as small packets of light. At the other end, the packets are translated back into electrical impulses, which are sent to the other end of the connection.That happens millions of times per second, with millions of conversations -- solid proof, if any was needed, that optic technology can handle the data loads needed for computing. Indeed, fiber-optic technology is already being used in some computing devices, such as Ethernet switches.

What's more, different wavelengths of light, which produce color to the human eye, could transmit different kinds of data in an optical computer. While an electron can only turn a computerized switch "on" and "off" --the ones and zeros of binary code -- a photon-based processor computer using different wavelengths could quickly generate parallel processes, drastically increasing the amount and complexity of computations.

The problem, according to Cardinal Warde, chairman of Optron Systems -- a Bedford, Massachusetts-based company engaged in optical technology research -- is one of miniaturization. "If you were to build an optical computer right now, it would be a huge nest of wires."

Grown in space

Grown in SpaceOptron Systems is working with researchers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, US, to develop new ways of getting photons from point A to point B -- in essence, creating a new kind of circuit board for light.

Thin polymer films, made from organic materials, can be cut into specific patterns with a laser. Much like a strand in a fiber-optic cable, the material focuses the light upon a desired pathway. However, unlike a cable, these pathways can be smaller, lighter and more flexible. There's one problem: These organic materials develop polymer aggregates -- clumps of other materials within the pathways -- that could scatter the light impulses used to transmit data. The only way to eliminate them is to grow the films in outer space -- on the 15 space shuttle, for instance. "The idea is to study how the films we produced in space are different," says David Smith, a researcher at Marshall, "and to figure out if we can do that down here."Don Frazier, the director of the Marshall project, hopesto have a prototype optical imaging device by 2001. Sometime after that, Optron Systems hopes to bring an optical computer to market. When that happens, Silicon Valley may have to change its name.

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