Analog-Faster-Cheaper-Better An Optical Signal Processing View Terry

Analog-Faster-Cheaper-Better An Optical Signal Processing View Terry Turpin Chief Scientist Essex Corporation [email protected]

Facts The “The Universe” is analog Human technology is still mostly analog – (did you ever see a digital bicycle) Digital has dominated the information processing and communications world for more than three decades Analog processing has been ignored by educational institutions There are at least two generations of scientists and engineers that have never learned analog processing or communications technology Analog optical processing in the past as been a small but persistent exception Optical communications and analog optical processing are merging the same way that digital processing and digital communications did in the past

Processing Overload World of Analog Signals Spread Spectrum A Fiber Optic to Digital Stream Microwave D Land Lines Radio 3,488 Tbs Television 68,955 Tbs Telephone 17,300,000 Tbs Internet 532,897 Tbs 17,905,340 Tbs!! (2002 Data!)

The Information Superiority Problem So much information so little time to process it Processing power is the key to superiority in a world market Summary of electronic information flows of new information in 2002 in terabytes 17.7 exabytes each year, and growing

“Era of Tera”* a Digital Perspective *Pat Gelsinger, CTO Intel (Keynote address at Intel Developer Forum Feb 2004)

Digital Dilemma over Power “Power density is increasing at a rate that implies that tens of thousands of watts per centimeter (w/cm2) will be needed to scale the performance of Pentium processor architecture over the next several years. But that would produce more heat than the surface of the Sun ”* *Pat Gelsinger, CTO Intel (Keynote address at Intel Developer Forum Feb 2004)

Begins the Age of Optical * Optical Processors Analog Optical Processors excel at - Images - Signals - Correlations *Pat Gelsinger, CTO Intel (Keynote address at Intel Developer Forum Feb 2004) References to Optical Processors added by Essex Corp.

Analog Optical Processing Overview Optical Processing Today Future Measured By Faster Yes Yes TIPS Cheaper Sometimes Yes Bytes/ Cooler Always Always Watts/cm2 Better Sometimes Sometimes Performance/ Application

An Unclassified Success in Size, Weight and Power Acousto-Optic Spectrometer AOS launched late 1998 on SWAS for a 2 year mission 4 channel 1400 point Fourier transform in real time on a 1.4 GHz analog signal Compute power is 500 Gigaflops (Sustained) for 12 Watts electrical power Analog input eliminated the need for high speed A/D converters Mission to study the chemical composition of interstellar clouds SWAS would be impossible without the AOS optical computer

Optical Processor/Computer? a machine that performs mathematical functions with light rather than electrons Functions most frequently used Fourier Transform (demultiplexing/multiplexing) Correlation (pattern detection) Data distribution and replication

Why go to Analog Optical Processors? Speed Advantages Reduced size and power consumption OEO Overhead & Cost are Excessive (optical - electrical - optical) Natural Fit: Optical Processing for - Optical Communications - Images - Signals - Correlations Typical improvement is a factor of 50000

Information on Light Information is carried by the complex-valued property of light (spatial frequency, amplitude and phase) When an information-carrying beam is passed through a special lens or coating, or interfered with another reference beam, light performs mathematical functions

Massive Parallelism Operates simultaneously on an entire wave front and more than one variable — e.g., direction, amplitude and phase Digital systems are serial in nature Example: A lens simultaneously acts on the entire light beam

Computational Set Analog optics can perform mathematical functions – – – – – – add copy multiply Fourier transforms correlation convolution Operates on one- and two-dimensional arrays of numbers in parallel A single analog optical computer “instruction” might require thousands or millions of individual instructions for a conventional computer

Analog Optical Computing Combines the best of both worlds: precision of electronics with massive computational power of light. Smaller, Lower Power, Lighter Computers Optical Computational Module 12 inches square Vs. Many Parallel Electronic Processors Supercomputer power where it can’t go now. Head of a missile UAV Mobile ICBM Defenders Satellites

Cutting Edge Elements Materials Photonic Crystals Non-Linear Materials Silicon Germanium III-V & II-VI Materials Systems New Components VCELS Optical Fiber Optical Amplifiers SOA EDFA Optical Correlators Optical Signal Processors Technology Photon Echo Optical Tap Delay Solotons

Example: Analog Optical Encryption Digital Encryption – – – – ATM at 10Gbps soon No 40 Gbps on horizon Protocol specific Cost increases linearly with number of signals on a fiber Analog Encryption – – – – 5000 Gbps on horizon (ESSEX Eclipse Module) Potential for multi-band encryption (L,C, and S) Protocol agnostic Cost is market driven and grows slowly with capacity on a fiber – 100 Teraflops for less than 10 Watts of electrical power

Hyperfine Analog Optical Encryptor X Gbps Phase Key Control Computer Sub-channels X Gbps Sub-channels X Gbps Device or WDM Devic e Analog Decoding “key” Point B Hyperfine Device Reflective Phase Modulator Array Reflective Phase Modulator Array Analog Encoding “key” C Band Comms Device Phase Key Control Computer WDM Devic e X Gbps Device or Hyperfine Device Point A C Band Comms Device

How Does it Work? Input Transmitted Scrambled Photons Recovered Simulated Data

Terabit Security – Cost Perspective * * ** *Assumes that aggregate bandwidths above 10 Gbps will be encrypted using multiple 10 Gbps encryptor pairs – 1 pair per wavelength ** Estimated ** costs are based on a multiplexed optical signal with aggregate bandwidth as indicated, and single optical encryptor pair per optical link

Additional Advantages Analog optical processing provides an alternate approach to thinking about problems This alternate approach often leads to solutions that are radically different and sometimes better For example, to implement continuous scale change and Fourier transforms on data that has not been sampled or digitized Enable solutions to problems that are thought to be too complex to solve economically In supercomputing applications the improvement is about a factor of 50000

Summary Analog is faster, cheaper and better Examples are – Separating signal channels in frequency – Optical Encryption – Optical Communications – Optical Signal Processing Analog is a key technology Analog optical technology will force analog electronics because of the A/D conversion limitation In optical communications, analog encryption and wavelength routing will provide growth at low cost per terabit