Mitsubishi Electric Corp has successfully tested an optical neural network chip that it claims stored self-learned knowledge for 20 minutes, the Kyodo news agency reports from Osaka. Mitsubishi researchers created the device by fabricating eight optical arithmetic elements and 64 optoelectronic memory elements onto a Gallium Arsenide substrate. The arithmetic units process the data as light, and the memory units convert the results to electrical signals for storage. The part operates at 2,000 times the speed of a personal computer, Mitsubishi says, adding that it is a long way from being of practical application, but the announcement will be taken as vindication by those convinced that the long-term future of computing will be optical.
