Implementing minimal clock skew Directed Logic

Although the physics of computing allows the possibility of logic operations with no energy dissipation, over 40 years of work by brilliant scientists in many fields has not achieved it. The solution described here required breaking from the tacit assumptions that logic gates had to be electronic. The system is implemented entirely with passive optical components. Also needed was a logic that could utilize those passive components. Hardy and Shamir showed how to map a Boolean logic problem into a form suitable to be implemented by light flowing through various paths and cascaded as needed. This paper examines a modular approach to implementing their approach (called Directed Logic) in an integrated optical system. We start from unit cells, implementing a dynamic flip-flop principle and combine the cells in a network or “logic fabric.” Contrary to proofs by the founders of this field, speed is limited only by the message bandwidth of the optical signal, and, of course, no energy is dissipated. There are still aspects that need additional work on issues like accuracy using analog components and size relative to electronics. But the basic problem is solved at last and paths toward solving the remaining problems have been identified.