Computers and the Speed of Light

Hey...great to see you! Glad you could stop by. Madge just brewed us a new pot of coffee all the while juggling a tray of oven-fresh virtual treats in her other hand. Say...you know how computers have been getting faster and faster, eh? Well hold onto your hat because you ain't seen nothing yet!

An optical switch developed at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) spurs the prospective integration of photonics and electronics. What, isn’t electronics good enough? Well, nothing travels faster than light, and in the effort to speed up the processing and transmission of information, the combined use of light parcels (photons) along with electricity parcels (electrons) is desirable for developing a workable opto-electronic protocol.

The JQI (*) switch can steer a beam of light from one direction to another in only 120 picoseconds (120 trillionths of a second), requiring very little power, only about 90 attojoules (90 x 10-18 joules). At the wavelength used, in the near infrared (921 nm), this amounts to about 140 photons. Whatever that means, eh?

I could have gone into a full-blown explanation but between you and me, I'd just as soon sit here chatting with you while munching on a double low-fat muffin! If things get any faster, we'll be there before we leave! Now that actually happens if, say you leave Japan at noon headed for Toronto. Thanks to the time zones and international date line, you'd be in Toronto before you left Japan. Go figure, eh!

See ya, eh!

Bob