JPS63113527A - Method and device for optical computing - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute a logical operation in parallel and at a high speed by converting photoelectrically the intensity of an output pattern obtained by multiplexing the first - the fourth light beams after the light intensity has been varied, binarizing a signal, and executing spatially in parallel a logical operation to plural input signals. CONSTITUTION:The titled device is provided with array light sources 1, 2 constituted of a light source being capable of modulation at a high speed, collimating lens arrays 3, 4 for collimating luminous fluxes emitted from these array-shaped light sources, and a half mirror 5 for multiplexing collimated light beams. Also, said device is provided with a space optical modulator 6 such as a liquid crystal TV, etc. for varying the transmissivity of the multiplexed light, a detector array 7 for observing the intensity of a pattern which has transmitted through this space optical modulator, and an A/D converter 11 for binarizing a signal. The array-shaped light sources 1, 2 are controlled, respectively, by driving devices 8, 9 constituted of a circuit for applying a voltage to the respective light sources, and the space optical modulator 6 is controlled by a control unit 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for performing logical operations in parallel and at high speed using light.

[Prior art and its problems]

Research is progressing on computers that can perform calculations at high speed in order to process large-scale information, but methods that use sequential processing using electrical circuits are already approaching their performance limits. Therefore, supercomputers, array processors, etc.
Research is progressing on parallel processing architectures that execute multiple operations simultaneously. On the other hand, light has spatial expansion and its physical properties do not interfere with each other, so operations using light have excellent parallelism. Possible means for modulating light include two amplitudes, two phases, one frequency, and polarization, and spatial light modulators are being developed.

However, many of the conventional optical calculation methods are not suitable for parallel calculations or require complex coding before calculation, making them impractical.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide an optical operation method and apparatus for changing the transmittance of light and executing logical operations in parallel and at high speed.

[Means for solving problems]

The optical calculation method of the present invention forms a plurality of input signals and a signal obtained by inverting the plurality of input signals, and a first light source emits light according to the input signal and a second light source emits light according to the inverted signal. A plurality of light sources are arranged in pairs to form a first light emitting surface and a second light emitting surface having the same structure as the first light emitting surface, and a light emitting pattern from the first light emitting surface and a light emitting pattern from the second light emitting surface are formed. superimpose the light emitting pattern so that the light emitted from the first light source and the second light source on the first light emitting surface and the light emitted from the first light source and the second light source on the second light emitting surface overlap, respectively; First light that is a combination of the first light source on the first light emitting surface and the light from the first light source on the second light emitting surface, and the first light source on the first light emitting surface and the second light source on the second light emitting surface. a second light that is a combination of the light from the light source of the light source, a third light that is a combination of the light from the second light source on the first light emitting surface and the first light source on the second light emitting surface; 2nd page of 1st page
The transmittance of each of the fourth lights, which is a combination of the light source of the light source and the light from the second light source of the second light emitting surface, is independently changed to 0.1/2 or 1. Second. Third. The intensity of the fourth light is changed, and the intensity of the first light is changed after the light intensity is changed. Second. Third. It is characterized in that the intensity of the output pattern obtained by combining the fourth light is photoelectrically converted to binarize the signal, and logical operations on the plurality of input signals are executed spatially in parallel.

The optical processing device of the present invention includes a first array light source and a plurality of second light sources arranged in pairs, each of which emits light in response to an input signal and a signal obtained by inverting the input signal. a light modulating means for changing the transmittance of the combined light; a light modulating means for changing the transmittance of the combined light; It is characterized by comprising a light observation means for observing the intensity of the pattern after passing through the modulation means, and a digital conversion means for binarizing the signal obtained by the light observation means.

[Principle of the invention]

The principle of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between input data and an input surface.

Two-dimensional binary input data 101 (a, b.

c, d, e, f) and data obtained by inverting these input data (D, ■, τ*T+e*f) are arranged in an array to form an input surface 102.

Two sets of such input surfaces are prepared, and one
When one of the sets of input surfaces 103 and 104 is arranged with one set rotated by 90 degrees and overlapped using a half mirror 105, a pattern in which two sets of manual patterns are overlapped is obtained on the output surface 107.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the pattern. As shown in FIG. 5(a), the data 108 on the input surface 103 is on the right in the figure, its inverted data 109 is on the left, the data 110 on the input surface 104 is on the top, and its inverted data 111 is on the bottom. Figure 5(b),
In (c), (d), and (e), the shaded area indicates the area that is not irradiated with light, and (b).

(c), (d), and (e) correspond to cases where the input data is (0,0), (0,1), (1,0), and (1,1), respectively. In such a pattern, there is an overlapping area 112' between the inverted data 109 and the inverted data 111, and an overlapping area 112' between the inverted data 109 and the data 110.
3', an overlapping area 114' between data 108 and inverted data 111, and an overlapping area between data 108 and data 110.

At this time, the pattern of the mask 106 has a light transmittance of 0.1
/2.1, and as shown in FIG. 6(a), the overlapping area 112' for one set of output patterns
, 113', 114', 115'. Second pattern 113
．． Third pattern 114. It is composed of a fourth pattern 115. Since the light of one of the input data 108, 109 and one of the input data 110, 111 in FIG. 5(a) is irradiated, the mask 106
The light intensity after passing through the mask patterns 112, 113, 114, and 115 is expressed as 0° 1/2.1. That is,
When the light of both input data is not irradiated, the light intensity is 1/2 when the light of the O2- input data is irradiated, and when the light of both input data is irradiated, the light intensity is 1/2. If there is, the light intensity is 1. When the transmitted light of one set of output patterns is focused and the light intensity is 1, it is "1", 0 or 1.
If it is set to "0" in the case of /2, by changing the transmittance of the mask pattern, it is possible to execute a logical operation using the data of two sets of input surfaces as input.

Table 1 shows the partial transmittance of the mask pattern as 0.1.
/2.1 shows 14 types of logical operations that can be executed. The numbers in the pattern column in the table represent transmittance.

An AND operation will be explained as an example of Table 1. Figure 6(b)
As shown, the mask pattern 112.113°114
Let the transmittance of the mask 115 be 0 and the transmittance of the mask 115 be 1. When the input data is (0°0) as shown in Figure 5(b),
Since the light intensity on the output surface is O, the output data is "0", and when the input data is (0, 1) as shown in Figure 5(c), the light intensity on the output surface is 1/2. Output data is “0”
”, the input data is (1, O) as shown in Figure 5(d).
At this time, the light intensity on the output surface is 1/2, so the output data is "0", and the input data is (1) as shown in Figure 5(c).
, 1), the light intensity on the output surface is 1, so the output data is "1". In this way, an AND operation can be performed.

Next, a NOR operation will be described as another example. 6th
As shown in Figure (c), the transmittance of the mask pattern 112 is 1, and the transmittance of the mask patterns 113, 114, and 115 is 0. When the input data is (0, O) as shown in Figure 5(b), the light intensity on the output surface is 1, so the output data is "1", and the input data is as shown in Figure 5(C). When (0, 1), the light intensity on the output surface is 1/2, so the output data is "0", and when the input data is (1, O) as shown in Figure 5(d), the output Since the light intensity on the surface is 1/2, the output data is "0" and the input data is as shown in Figure 5 (e
) As shown in (1, 1), the light intensity at the output surface is 0.
Therefore, the output data is 0''.

In this way, a NOR operation can be performed.

Although the above two logical operation examples have been explained, as shown in Table 1, each input two-dimensional data is
It can be seen that logical operations can be executed in parallel by combining the four mask patterns shown in ).

〔Example〕

The present invention will be explained in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an optical calculation device that implements the optical calculation method of the present invention. This optical calculation device includes an array light source 1.2 composed of light sources capable of high-speed modulation, such as LEDs, arranged at orthogonal positions to each other, and a collimating lens that collimates the light beams emitted from these arrayed light sources. Arrays 3 and 4, a half mirror 5 that combines collimated light, a spatial light modulator 6 such as a liquid crystal TV that changes the transmittance of the combined light, and a light beam after passing through the spatial light modulator. Observe the strength of the pattern,
For example, a detector array 7 such as a two-dimensional CCD, and A that binarizes the signal obtained by this detector array.
/D converter 11. Array light source 1.
2 are each controlled by a drive device 8.9 composed of a circuit that applies a voltage to each light source, and the spatial light modulator 6 is controlled by a control device fIO.

In the optical arithmetic device having the above configuration, the array light sources 1 and 2
The input data for blinking is controlled by the drive device 8.9. The light beam emitted from the array light source 1.2 is collimated by the collimating lens array 3.4. These multiple collimated lights are combined by a half mirror 5 and then transmitted through a spatial light modulator 6. The control device 10 places the aperture of the spatial light modulator 6 at a position determined by the type of logic operation. The light transmitted through the spatial light modulator 6 is received by the detector array 7 and
The /D converter 11 digitizes and binarizes the data. In the manner described above, desired logical operations can be executed.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the optical arithmetic device.

This optical calculation device has the collimating lens array 3.4 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 replaced with a lenticular plate 21.22, and the other configurations are the same as the optical calculation device shown in FIG. Identical elements are designated by the same numbers.

The light emitted from the array light sources 1 and 2 is focused on the detector array 7 as shown in FIG. 7(a). 7th
Figure (a) shows the relationship between the input data and the input surface when the optical arithmetic device of this embodiment is made to correspond to the diagram showing the principle of the optical arithmetic method in FIG. 4.

Data 120 on the input surface 103 is focused on the right in the figure, its inverted data 121 is focused on the left, data 122 on the input surface 104 is focused on the top, and its inverted data 123 is focused on the bottom. At this time, four mask patterns, namely, a first pattern 124, a second pattern 125. Third pattern 126. If the fourth pattern 127 is set as shown in FIG. 7(b), logical operations similar to those in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 can be performed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, logical operations can be executed in parallel and at high speed by using the optical operation method and optical operation device of the present invention.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIGS. 1 and 2 are perspective views showing embodiments of the optical calculation device of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between input data and an input surface, and FIG. 4 is the principle of the optical calculation method. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the output pattern; FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the mask pattern; FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the output and mask pattern of the embodiment of FIG. 2. . 1.2...Array light source 3.4...Lens array 5.105...Half mirror 6...Spatial light modulator 7... Detector array 8.9... Drive device 10... Control device 11... A/D converter 21, 22... Lenticular plate 101...・Input data 102, 103.104 ・・Input surface 106 ・・
...Mask 107 ...Output surface

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A plurality of input signals and a signal obtained by inverting the plurality of input signals are formed, and a plurality of pairs of a first light source that emits light according to the input signal and a second light source that emits light according to the inverted signal are formed. A first light-emitting surface and a second light-emitting surface having the same structure as the first light-emitting surface are configured by arranging the light-emitting surface and the light-emitting pattern from the first light-emitting surface and the light-emitting pattern from the second light-emitting surface. The light emitted from the first light source and the second light source on the first surface and the light emitted from the second light source
The light emitted from the first light source and the second light source on the surface are superimposed so as to overlap each other, and the light from the first light source on the first light emitting surface and the light from the first light source on the second light emitting surface are combined. the first light, which is a combination of the first light source on the first light emitting surface and the light from the second light source on the second light emitting surface, and the second light source on the first light emitting surface. The third light which is multiplexed with the light from the first light source on the second light emitting surface and the second light on the first light emitting surface.
The transmittance of the fourth light, which is obtained by combining the light source of the light source and the light from the second light source of the second light emitting surface, is independently changed to 0, 1/2, or 1 to 3. Change the intensity of the fourth light, and photoelectrically convert the intensity of the output pattern obtained by combining the first, second, third, and fourth lights after the light intensity has changed, and convert the signal into a binary signal. An optical arithmetic method, characterized in that the logical operations on the plurality of input signals are executed spatially in parallel. (2) A first array light source and a second array light source in which a plurality of first light sources and second light sources that emit light based on an input signal and a signal obtained by inverting the input signal are arranged in pairs. a combining means for combining the light emitted from the first arrayed light source and the second arrayed light source; a light modulating means for changing the transmittance of the combined light; An optical calculation device comprising: a light observation means for observing the intensity of a pattern; and a digital conversion means for binarizing the signal obtained by the light observation means.