Ternary Optical Computer: An Overview and Recent Developments

The ternary optical computer (TOC) is a new computer system whose first prototype came out in 2017. Using a dark state and two bright states with perpendicular polarization directions to express information, a ternary optical processor (TOP) consists of rotators and polarizers. Compared with commonly used electronic computers, this new type of optical computer has five advantages. Firstly, it is possible to build a TOP with millions of processor bits. Secondly, the many processor bits can be arbitrarily parted or spliced such that TOP can perform parallel operations on massive data. Thirdly, the hardware's computing function of each processor bit can be dynamically configured at runtime. Fourthly, a many-bit parallel adder without continuous carry delay can be built on TOP. Fifthly, TOP will have a faster computing speed and lower energy consumption than current electronic processors. In this paper, we firstly give an overview of the TOC system, including basic structure, construction method, reconfigurable processor, parallel adder, memory system, and programming method. Then, we report its most recent developments including latest prototypes, application studies, and multi-valued electronic processor emulators.