AT&T; Unveils Laser-Based Prototype Chip : Technology: The breakthrough device could revolutionize information processing and communications systems.
American Telephone & Telegraph on Monday unveiled the world’s first optical microprocessor, a groundbreaking device that can ultimately allow computers to process vast quantities of information thousands of times faster than is currently possible.
The device, five years in the making at AT&T;’s Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, uses technology similar to that of ordinary compact-disc players: laser beams and mirrors. That is much faster and more powerful than the electrical impulses used by existing computer chips.
Scientists said the harnessing of the technology, which was accomplished through an oversize prototype of a computer chip, represents a significant advance for both computers and telephones. Ultimately, AT&T; scientists said, the new technology could increase the capabilities of computers and telephone networks by at least 10,000 times over current levels.
Although scientists have long theorized that it should be possible to build an all-laser computer, no practical, operational device had been developed until a buoyant group of AT&T; researchers unveiled the results of their multimillion-dollar efforts Monday.
While Japanese researchers have been pioneers in optical technology and compact disc manufacturing, scientists said they do not believe that the Japanese, despite possessing the technical capability, have developed an optical microprocessor. However, the scientists said, the AT&T; development would surely spur additional research.
Laser technology is one of several advanced techniques that have fascinated scientists as a way of escaping the limitations of electrons and silicon.
Despite their elation, the scientists at Bell Labs, where cellular telephone technology and the solar battery were invented, cautioned that their experimental device is still in a rudimentary stage and years away from a practical, everyday application.
“This is a significant technological milestone, but it’s not quite the ‘Second Coming,’ ” quipped Alan Huang, the 41-year-old computer scientist who led a team of researchers during the five-year project. “But it shows that the technology that we have long dreamed about can be built.”
Huang, head of AT&T;’s optical computing research department, speculated that the new technology--which bounces beams of data from mirror to mirror at the speed of light--186,000-miles-per-second--will find its first applications in selected telephone connection devices and isolated parts of supercomputers.
However, by the turn of the century, he said, entire computers could be built around optical chips.
The central advantage to the new technology, Huang said, is that it allows chips to carry and process far more information than current state-of-the-art semiconductors. He likened the difference to an “old-style” freeway system composed of 100 highways. With the new-style optical processing, the freeway system explodes to the equivalent of 6,000 highways--without taking up any additional space.
The researchers said AT&T; is specifically interested in the new technology because it has the potential to vastly expand communications, both by traditional telephone and by data networks. In essence, the company that offers the greatest communications pathways stands to get more business, the scientists said.
AT&T; said it is manufacturing limited quantities of the device and will sell prototypes for about $10,000 each to companies wishing to test the technology. However, the company said, it has applied for patents and has no immediate plans to license the technology to other companies.
Although the processor unveiled Monday was deemed by its creators to be “very modest” in its immediate capabilities, it represents several advances.
The chip material on which the lasers bounce around is a new compound of gallium arsenide and gallium aluminum created by AT&T; researchers. Gallium arsenide has long been believed to be a faster and superior material for semiconductors, but it has yet to replace the far more common silicon that is the basis for the vast majority of the world’s chips.
According to Huang, the device is composed of several alternating layers of the two materials. By arranging the materials in specific configurations, they act as mirrors, bouncing the light along the device’s circuitry.
