E-Paper
Researchers exemplify world’s fastest optical
Artificial neural networks, a key form of artificial intelligence, can learn and perform complex operations with wide applications to computer vision, natural language processing, facial recognition, speech translation, playing strategy games, medical diagnosis, and many other areas.
Swinburne University of Technology led team has demonstrated the world’s fastest and most powerful optical neuromorphic processor for artificial intelligence (AI) that can operate faster than 10 trillion operations per second and is capable of processing ultra-large-scale data.
The research published in the journal Nature represents an enormous leap forward for neural networks and neuromorphic processing in general.
Artificial neural networks, a key form of artificial intelligence, can learn and perform complex operations with wide applications to computer vision, natural language processing, facial recognition, speech translation, playing strategy games, medical diagnosis, and many other areas.
Inspired by the biological structure of the brain’s visual cortex system, artificial neural networks extract key features of raw data to predict properties and behaviour with unprecedented accuracy and simplicity.
Led by Swinburne’s professor David Moss, Xingyuan (Mike) Xu (Swinburne, Monash University), and distinguished professor Arnan Mitchell from RMIT University, the team achieved an exceptional feat in optical neural networks: dramatically accelerating their computing speed and processing power.
The team demonstrated an optical neuromorphic processor operating more than 1000 times faster than any previous processor, with the system also processing record-sized ultra-large-scale images enough to achieve full facial image recognition, something that other optical processors have been unable to accomplish.
“This breakthrough was achieved with ‘optical micro-combs’, as was our world-record internet data speed reported in May 2020,” told professor Moss, Director of Swinburne’s Optical Sciences Centre and recently named one of Australia’s top research leaders in physics and mathematics in the field of optics and photonics by The Australian.
