Professor Mitsuru Takenaka and his research group, in collaboration with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), have developed a new optical processor for next-generation AI accelerators that realizes “optical waveguide multiplexing” and can accelerate matrix-vector multiplication using light. By developing and implementing a multi-port photodetector that can directly add optical signals in multiple optical waveguides for the first time, we have enabled the utilization of “optical waveguide multiplexing”, which has not been used before, and successfully demonstrated an optical matrix calculation circuit with a simple chip configuration but high scalability. This is expected to make a significant contribution to the establishment of a high-speed and power-saving hybrid arithmetic architecture for the realization of next-generation AI processors that utilize optical technology. These results were published in the online edition of the US journal “Optica” on 4 June.
[Link]