Jonathan Westphal

Conservative Optical Logic Devices: COLD

Publisher Summary Conservative optical logic devices (COLD) aim at satisfying needs in niche markets. Where it is applicable, it has uniquely wonderful properties. This chapter describes COLD. Many integrated optical devices on silicon substrates have been developed and many more are being developed that combine small optical components on the same substrate as the electronics that operate them—a kind of best of both worlds approach. Those devices can be used for COLD. The most powerful COLD approach involves a digital light deflector (DLD). It can be made conservative, because it can build the DLD out of conservative operations, such as the Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The chapter focuses on the great deal of work on finding non-Boolean logics more amenable to COLD.

A new way with the Consequence Argument, and the fixity of the laws

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Logic without energy or bandwidth limits

Boolean logic is an inherently irreversible, hence lossy operation. It has a well-known energy cost and an obvious time cost. To avoid those costs, we must do a different kind of logic. But, it is Boolean logic that we wish to do. We solved that dilemma by using a quantum optical logic gate that is fully reversible that yields the Boolean result after the irreversible loss of information in detection occurs.