DIGITAL OPTICAL PROCESSOR BASED ON SYMBOLIC SUBSTITUTION USING HOLOGRAPHIC MATCHED FILTERING

We propose a digital optical arithmetic processor design based on symbolic substitution using holographic matched and space-invariant filters. The proposed system performs Boolean logic, binary addition, and subtraction in a highly parallel manner; i.e., the processing time depends on word size but not array size. Algorithms for performing binary addition and subtraction in parallel are presented. A skew problem occurring when symbolic substitution is applied to binary addition and subtraction with space-invariant systems is addressed, and its solution is suggested. Crosstalk in symbolic substitution is described, and new symbols which can prevent the crosstalk are introduced. System analysis and fundamental limitations of the proposed system are also presented in terms of processing time, overall light efficiency, and the maximum array size of the input data plane. The performance of the proposed system with that of the current electronic supercomputers has been compared by combining information about the processing time and maximum array size. © 1990 Optical Society of America.