The Optical Turing Machine

The Optical Turing Machine (OTM) is a new approach to optical computing for Tbps in-network processing that unifies communication and computation using a single data representation that supports in-transit network packet... [ view full abstract ]

The Optical Turing Machine (OTM) is a new approach to optical computing for Tbps in-network processing that unifies communication and computation using a single data representation that supports in-transit network packet processing, big data filtering, and security. It leverages the native properties of optical wave mixing to support computation and switching for programmability. OTM observes that: data must be encoded digitally as phase (M-PSK), semantics-preserving regeneration is the key to high-order computation, and data processing at Tbps rates requires mixing. OTM experiments have demonstrated viable approaches to phase squeezing and power restoration, and the first serial, optical Internet hop-count decrement. An optical Internet checksum circuit has been implemented and a circuit for Internet packet multiplexing has been designed and simulated. Current exploration focuses on limited-lookback computational models to reduce the need for permanent storage and hybrid integration is needed to combine phase-aligned comb sources, nonlinear mixing, and switching on the same substrate to avoid the macroscopic effects that hamper benchtop coherent processing prototypes.