photonic x86 CPU design

On Wed, 12 Oct 2005 06:21:40 +0200, koko wrote:

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 01:17:01 +0200, Nathan Bates
wrote:

The twist is that this x86 CPU will be based on photonic technology.
Photonics

can you say bling bling?
I just hope they got themselves lots of room for those flashlights and
mirrors.

I understand flashlights (when the power company wants the bill paid), but
mirrors?

--
Keith

"koko" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 01:17:01 +0200, Nathan Bates
wrote:

The twist is that this x86 CPU will be based on photonic technology.
Photonics

can you say bling bling?
I just hope they got themselves lots of room for those flashlights and
mirrors.


No need for flashlights, but they will need orange smoke.

--

... Hank

http://home.earthlink.net/~horedson
http://home.earthlink.net/~w0rli

In article ,
Evgenij Barsukov wrote:

YKhan wrote:
As soon as I hear photonics in relation to CPUs, I immediately think
scam.

Yousuf Khan

Intel recently demonstrated in-silicon infrared laser, so I think
it will not remain this way much longer. There is not many other
ways to go if you want to keep increasing bandwith inside the chip.

Regards,
Evgenij

The problem is not (or mostly not) the generation of the light, it is
the switching based on the light. Pretty much all the technologies
available to do this suck in one way or another.
And, of course, it's pretty much irrelevant whether they get a photonics
CPU to work or not. Hook up your fancy 100GHz CPU to existing RAM, and
the results aren't going to impress anyone much.

Maynard

keith writes:

Jeez! After we get nuclear fusion tackled we'll not need photonics.
Processors can then scale to 1.21GW and there won't be any need for
photonics. Indeed, my money would be on Mr. Fusion first. After all,
it has a 50 year head start.

Well, if you have a 50 year head start, but are nowhere near the
finishing line, perhaps you are running in the wrong direction?

:-)

-k
--
If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants

On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 06:30:38 GMT, Maynard Handley
wrote:

In article ,
Evgenij Barsukov wrote:

YKhan wrote:
As soon as I hear photonics in relation to CPUs, I immediately think
scam.

Yousuf Khan

Intel recently demonstrated in-silicon infrared laser, so I think
it will not remain this way much longer. There is not many other
ways to go if you want to keep increasing bandwith inside the chip.

Regards,
Evgenij

The problem is not (or mostly not) the generation of the light, it is
the switching based on the light. Pretty much all the technologies
available to do this suck in one way or another.
And, of course, it's pretty much irrelevant whether they get a photonics
CPU to work or not. Hook up your fancy 100GHz CPU to existing RAM, and
the results aren't going to impress anyone much.

Hey, you could hook the bugger up directly to some of that holographic
memory I've been hearing great things about... for the past x0 years
(choose x according to your age).

--
Rgds, George Macdonald

In article , fammacd=!
says...
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 06:30:38 GMT, Maynard Handley
wrote:

snip

The problem is not (or mostly not) the generation of the light, it is
the switching based on the light. Pretty much all the technologies
available to do this suck in one way or another.
And, of course, it's pretty much irrelevant whether they get a photonics
CPU to work or not. Hook up your fancy 100GHz CPU to existing RAM, and
the results aren't going to impress anyone much.

Hey, you could hook the bugger up directly to some of that holographic
memory I've been hearing great things about... for the past x0 years
(choose x according to your age).

I first heard about holographic storage "proposed"[*] for the
Illiac IV in the mid '60s.
[*] not sure it was serious

--
Keith

On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 03:31:09 +0200, keith wrote:

I understand flashlights (when the power company wants the bill paid),
but mirrors?

You need a lot of little shiny objects in this line of business.

--
the penguins are psychotic
aka just smile and wave

On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 12:45:28 +0200, George Macdonald
wrote:

Hey, you could hook the bugger up directly to some of that holographic
memory I've been hearing great things about... for the past x0 years
(choose x according to your age).

you mean Diamond/ruby/gas based? The one workind in labs today ?


--
the penguins are psychotic
aka just smile and wave

So how exactly does holographic memory work?

Yousuf Khan

In comp.arch Maynard Handley wrote:
And, of course, it's pretty much irrelevant whether they get a photonics
CPU to work or not. Hook up your fancy 100GHz CPU to existing RAM, and
the results aren't going to impress anyone much.

That was what came to mind here.

If you ignore that however and also assume that a first generation
photonic product wouldn't be able to support the complexity of a
modern x86 chip, would there be a market for a 100GHz 8086? Or
80386, etc.? Would you be willing to run Windows 3.1 again if it
ran 20x faster than XP on a traditional modern x86?

G.