[en] How small could optical computers get?

"... #research ... addresses one of the key challenges to #engineering computers that run on #light instead of #electricity: making those devices small enough to be practical. Just as algorithms on digital computers require time and memory to run, light-based systems also require resources to operate ..."

"... researchers found inspiration in a deep-learning technique called 'neural pruning' ..."

"... an optical #computing system performing the same task could be 1% to 10% the size of its conventional counterpart. ... a free-space #optical setup could, in principle, perform computations ... in a device roughly 1 [cm] thick."

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/11/researchers-reveal-how-small-optical-computers-could-get

#opticalcomputer #lightbasedsystem #deeplearning #neuralpruning
#ResearchHighlights