Researchers Building Computers That Run on Light

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers in England are attempting to build a desktop computer that runs on light rather than electronics. A $1.6 million research project starting in June at the University of Bath is focused on developing attosecond technology, which refers to continuously emitting light pulses that last just a billion-billionth of a second."

Re:gghz

[rrohbeck]

>So whats that a giga-gigahertz?
Exahertz, EHz.

Oh fuck

[joto]

Researchers in England are attempting to build a desktop computer that runs on light rather than electronics.

No, they aren't! The article didn't mention desktop computers at all. As expected, this is basic research on photonics. The researchers are nowhere closer to build a desktop computer that run on light, than they are to build a desktop computer that runs on steam and valves. Whether it is the submitters or editors who are idiots is hard to tell, but my guess is that both of them would score pretty well on that scale! Maybe we should build desktop computers of them?

Re:No more Van-Eck security risks

[ScentCone]

If photonics take over, we will for once be in a safe-zone of knowing once and for all that no overly powerful overseeing entity will be able to eavesdrop on any kind of electromagnetic emissions, so long as you don't have any light leaks.

Doesn't matter. Most meaningful cracking has a social component anyway. Or based on easily deduced patterns of human behavior. Or the fact that 'p@55word' just isn't as tricksy as some people seem to think.

Re:Depends.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's really only the engineers. The rest of us (academics at least) prefer metric. Metric is now taught in the school systems, and all science classes expect students to use the metric, not the standard system. Engineers though don't move so fast, partly due to backwards compatability. Retooling every factory in the US is a problem, so they don't, but then everything is still in standard, so the new factories are in standard to... etc. etc. It's sort of like the internet switching over to IPv6. Because no-one can, or at least is willing, to say "on this day a giant switch will be flipped, and the world will change" the switch just doesn't happen at all.