Analog optical computer for AI inference and combinatorial optimization
6 days ago
- #Analog Computing
- #Combinatorial Optimization
- #Artificial Intelligence
- Introduction of an analog optical computer (AOC) combining analog electronics and 3D optics to accelerate AI inference and combinatorial optimization.
- AOC avoids digital conversions, enhancing noise robustness and energy efficiency.
- Demonstrated applications include image classification, nonlinear regression, medical image reconstruction, and financial transaction settlement.
- AOC achieves projected performance of 500 tera-operations per second (TOPS) per watt at 8-bit precision, significantly more efficient than GPUs.
- Fixed-point abstraction enables AOC to handle both AI and optimization workloads efficiently.
- Hardware combines optical matrix-vector multiplication with analog electronic operations like nonlinearities and annealing.
- Case studies show AOC's effectiveness in practical applications, including MRI reconstruction and transaction settlement.
- Scalability potential highlighted with modular architecture and consumer-grade components.