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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Question:  on-chip or off-chip MMU?
Message-ID: <8075@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-May-87 21:20:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.8075
Posted: Mon May 25 21:20:02 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 25-May-87 21:20:02 EDT
References: <579@gec-mi-at.co.uk>, <3810035@nucsrl.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 21

>      Another nice thing about optical computing is the ability to represent
>      and compute in multiple levels of logic.  Imagine ternary or other
>      higher radices used for computation...

I am thinking about it.  I'm wondering "why bother?".  Binary works really
well, and puts the least demands on linearity and reproducibility of device
properties -- *not* a strong point of optical digital devices to date.

>    ... It might ressurect analog computation. 

Indeed, optical analog computing is where the action -- as opposed to pure
research with no near-term practical application -- is right now.

>    If optical computing becomes commonplace, what would be the equivalent of
>    MIPS and FLOPS? MQPS (Million Quanta per second :-))

MIPS and FLOPS, basically.  I don't *care* how quickly you can do a Fourier
transform, that won't compile my program.
-- 
"The average nutritional value    Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
of promises is roughly zero."     {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry