Applied Optics and JOSA A Feature Announcement
Optical High-Performance Computing
Submission Deadline: December 1, 2008
Feature issues in both Applied Optics and the Journal of the Optical Society of America A (JOSA A), focusing on topics of immediate relevance to the optical community, are planned for 2009. These feature issues will cover areas encompassing optical computing, design of optical computing devices, electro-optic devices for interacting with optical computing devices, practical implementations, optical and laser switching technologies, applications and algorithms for optical devices, alpha practical, x rays, nanotechnologies, and quantum technologies for optical computing including devices, algorithms, and implementations.
Optical computing devices have long been heralded for their potential to be the next computing infrastructure. However, the momentum to realize this potential has been building at a rapid pace in recent years, as current-generation electrical computing rapidly approaches fundamental limitation. The emergence of the multicore parallel microprocessor architecture as the primary candidate for the future scaling of power performance is a particularly strong driver behind the development of optical technologies for computing. For example, developments in silicon optical devices have produced working hybrid electrical and optical computing devices, in particular, optical switches for on-chip communication. The natural parallelism of optical computing devices, as well as the advance in fiber optics, integrated optics, and optical switching technologies, holds forth the promise of a new generation of hybrid computing platforms that are capable of carrying Moore's law into the future. There is almost universal agreement that optics must have a significant role in next-generation systems for reasons including speed, parallel access to features on a chip, and power efficiency. The proposed feature issue will provide a forum for cutting edge issues in both implementations and algorithms for future optical computing and hybrid computing platforms.
Research contributions to the theory, design, analysis, implementation, or application of optical computers will be included in the special issue. The relevance of these topics is highlighted by major ongoing research activities within most academic and government research centers. In the commercial realm, Intel, IBM, HP, Sun Microsystems, and numerous other companies are investigating ways of using light to communicate information over silicon.
The aim of this feature issue is to provide a succinct collection of articles that are representative of the state of the art of today's science and technology in this fast growing arena. Papers submitted for consideration should focus on identified and sustainable advantages of optical computing technologies over purely electronic components or processes. Mere ability to perform a task with optics does not necessarily make the optical approach useful or publishable in this feature issue. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:
- Advances in integration of optics into (silicon) chips
- Computation models and computation complexity measures for optical devices
- Optical computer architectures
- Optical and laser switching technologies
- Optical threshold realizations
- Optical implementation of logic gates and circuits
- Quantum optical computers
- Practical implementations and analyses of existing optical computing devices
- Suitable lasers pumped from within the waveguide
- Use of the 3D properties of light in connections within and among chips
- Largely optical signal processing
- Components for optical computers that exhibit significant computing advantages or make use of optics in computing easier
- Applications of semiconductor optical amplifiers
- Designer material properties useful in computing such as slow or fast light, quantum dots, and photonic bandgaps
- Reaching the 1960s goal of computing without expending energy using optics
- Specialized components that move operating and testing on chip
Manuscripts must be prepared according to the usual standards for submission to Applied Optics and JOSA A; see the Information for Contributors in any printed issue or the OSA Style Guide: http://ao.osa.org/submit/style/jrnls_style.cfm; http://josaa.osa.org/submit/style/jrnls_style.cfm.
Manuscripts must also be uploaded through OSA's electronic submission system: the JOSA A website is http://josaa.osa.org/journal/josaa/author.cfm; the Applied Optics website is http://ao.osa.org/journal/ao/author.cfm. All submissions to Applied Optics must be submitted to the Information Processing Division. Please specify that the manuscript is for the Optical High-Performance Computing feature (choose from the feature issue drop-down menu).
Feature Editors
H. John Caulfield
Fisk University
Nashville, Tennessee
USA
hjc@fisk.edu
Shlomi Dolev
Ben-Gurion University
Beer Sheva, Israel
dolev@cs.bgu.ac.il
William M. J. Green
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Yorktown Heights, New York
USA
wgreen@us.ibm.com
