Fully reconfigurable coherent optical vector-matrix multiplication

TL;DR

This paper presents a reconfigurable free-space optical multiplier capable of performing over 3000 parallel computations, enabling large-scale vector-matrix and vector-vector multiplications for optical computing applications.

Contribution

It introduces the first optical multiplier supporting reconfigurable, large-size, real-valued linear algebra operations simultaneously.

Findings

Supports vector size up to 56

Performs over 3000 parallel computations

Enables applications in optical neural networks

Abstract

Optics is a promising platform in which to help realise the next generation of fast, parallel and energy-efficient computation. We demonstrate a reconfigurable free-space optical multiplier that is capable of over 3000 computations in parallel, using spatial light modulators with a pixel resolution of only 340x340. This enables vector-matrix multiplication and parallel vector-vector multiplication with vector size of up to 56. Our design is the first to simultaneously support optical implementation of reconfigurable, large-size and real-valued linear algebraic operations. Such an optical multiplier can serve as a building block of special-purpose optical processors such as optical neural networks and optical Ising machines.