News


World's first commercial optical processor revealed

19 November 2003 News

Optical digital signal processing specialist, Lenslet, based in Israel, has announced the world’s first commercial optical digital signal processor. Specified to run at a speed of 8 Tera (8000 Giga) operations per second – one thousand times faster than any known DSP – the company expects this innovative product will enable revolutionary, new applications in the fields of defense, homeland security, multimedia and communications.

The three order of magnitude acceleration delivered by the company's new EnLight platform opens the door to previously unfeasible defence capabilities. Lenslet's optical processor was developed over the past three years and offers a combined solution of optics and silicon in the format of a standard electronic board card with standard interfaces and development tools as generally accepted in the industry.

The world's first commercial reconfigurable optically-based digital signal processing engine (ODSPE), it performs vector-matrix multiplication (VMM) in a single machine cycle. According to the company, the native VMM operation enables the implementation of DSP algorithms simply and efficiently, at the highest level, using the natural representation of vectors and matrices. Component programming changes can be made at the application level or at the task level (within an application), or for values within a given task. This flexibility allows the ODSPE to meet current and future computational requirements, reduces the component count for new solutions, and significantly cuts product life-cycle cost.

Diagram of the Enlight256 optical core
Diagram of the Enlight256 optical core

The optical core is composed of an input array of 256 vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL), a spatial light modulator (SLM) composed of 256 by 256 matrix elements, and a photo detector array (PDA) of 256 detectors. As the light transmitted by a VCSEL passes through an SLM element, its intensity is attenuated by the transmissivity level of that SLM element, an effect equivalent to multiplication. Each one of the VCSELs shines on one column in the SLM, and each one of the detectors collects the energy from one row in the SLM yielding a vector-matrix multiplication operation. The 64K elements in the matrix are multiplied by the 256 elements in the input vector generating an output vector of 256 one-byte wide elements. This is the key to the massive data parallelism of the ODSPE.

For more information see www.lenslet.com





Share this article:
Share via emailShare via LinkedInPrint this page

Further reading:

From the Editor's desk: Growth through inclusivity
Technews Publishing News
As the engineering fields in South Africa continue to make progress toward gender equality, we are finally starting to see the presence and contribution of women in engineering and industrial roles.

Read more...
KITE 2025 proves its value
News
The KwaZulu-Natal Industrial Technology Exhibition (KITE) 2025 confirmed its place as KwaZulu-Natal’s must-attend industrial event, drawing thousands of industry professionals.

Read more...
Otto Wireless Solutions announces promotion of Miyelani Kubayi to technical director
Otto Wireless Solutions News
Otto Wireless Solutions is proud to announce the promotion of Miyelani Kubayi to the position of technical director, effective 1 August 2025.

Read more...
DMASS experiences continued slowdown
News
The European electronic components distribution market continued its downward trajectory in the second quarter of 2025, according to new figures released by DMASS.

Read more...
World-first zero second grid-to-backup power switch
News
JSE-listed cable manufacturer, South Ocean Electric Wire, has completed a solar installation it says marks a global first: a seamless switch from grid to backup power in zero seconds.

Read more...

News
OMC deploys cobots to improve throughput 10x, while maintaining quality and ensuring consistency of fibre optic production.

Read more...
Cobots for opto production line
News
OMC deploys cobots to improve throughput 10x, while maintaining quality and ensuring consistency of fibre optic production.

Read more...
SACEEC celebrates standout industrial innovation on the KITE 2025 show floor
News
Exhibitor innovation took the spotlight at the KITE 2025 as the South African Capital Equipment Export Council announced the winners of its prestigious New Product & Innovation Awards.

Read more...
SA team for International Olympiad in Informatics
News
The Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa has named the team that will represent South Africa at this year’s International Olympiad in Informatics.

Read more...
Anritsu and Bluetest to support OTA measurement
News
Anritsu Company and Sweden-based Bluetest AB have jointly developed an Over-The-Air measurement solution to evaluate the performance of 5G IoT devices compliant with the RedCap specification.

Read more...









While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements and company contact details are published as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material.




© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd | All Rights Reserved