Developments in optical computers: David Miller of AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel Talks to Jo Ann McDonald
- Book ID
- 103980392
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1990
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 619 KB
- Volume
- 3
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0959-3527
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
A n outstanding Scottish physicist, David A.B. Miller is a key contributor to bringing us the world's first digital optical processor, an experimental machine that carries out information processing with light rather than electrons. David Miller is head of the Photonics Switching Device Research Department at AT&T Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ. The device he developed is a GaAs/AIGaAs based optical switch, grown by MBE, and called a Symmetric Self-Electro-optic Effect Device, or S-SEED. The basic SEED combines quantum well modulators with photodetectors to produce devices with both optical inputs and outputs that use very little energy, thus avoiding many of the systems problems such optical logic devices have experienced in the past.
David's S-SEEDs are currently being integrated into the new optical computer under development at Bell Labs by one of America's most noteworthy computer designers, Alan Huang. The project represents a radical departure from conventional electronic processors.S-SEEDs are now available for outside testing and application, and are touted as having the potential of circumventing difficult electronic interconnect problems through the use of optics. We, along with David, look forward to III-V community input regarding his S-SEEDs, the applications of which should prove to be significant solutions to old limitations.
Reference:
/:or an in-depth technical discussion of SEEDs and S-SEEDs, readers should refer to "OPTOELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS OF QUANTUM WELLS" by D. A.B. Miller, as published in OPTICS & PHOTONICS NEWS, February 1990, pages 7-15, which includes a comprehensive reference list and glossary on the subject.