While the world's largest technology companies are looking for ways to overcome the limitations of classical electronics, Russian schoolchildren are already assembling their own light-based computing devices. Graduates of the "Altair" Children's Technopark at RTU MIREA, Timofey Gorlov and Vladislav Langas, have created a prototype computing unit that performs operations using laser beams.
The project is based on an optical half-adder – one of the basic elements of computing technology. Unlike conventional processors, it uses the properties of light, geometric optics, and the polarization of laser radiation.
The unit developed by the schoolchildren belongs to the class of analog computing devices. Instead of familiar transistors and microchips, it uses mirrors, polarizers, and laser sources, forming computational operations through the interaction of light flows.
Such technologies could potentially be used in the future to create photonic computing systems, secure communication channels, and specialized cryptographic solutions.
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