The potential of multidimensional photonic computing

authored by: Ivonne Bente, Shabnam Taheriniya, Francesco Lenzini, Frank Brückerhoff-Plückelmann, Michael Kues, Harish Bhaskaran, C. David Wright, Wolfram Pernice
Abstract: The rapidly increasing demands on computational throughput, bandwidth and memory capacity fuelled by breakthroughs in machine learning pose substantial challenges for conventional electronic computing platforms. Historically, advancing compute performance relied on miniaturization to increase the transistor count on a given chip area and, more recently, on the development of parallel and multicore architectures. Computing platforms that process data using multiple, orthogonal dimensions can achieve exponential scaling on trajectories much steeper than what is possible with conventional strategies. One promising analog platform is photonics, which makes use of the physics of light, such as sensitivity to material properties and ability to encode information across multiple degrees of freedom. With recent breakthroughs in integrated photonic hardware and control, large-scale photonic systems have become a practical and timely solution for data-intensive, real-time computational tasks. Here, we explain developments in the realization of multidimensional computing platforms based on photonic systems. Moving to such architectures holds promise for low-latency, high-bandwidth information processing at reduced energy consumption.
Organisation(s): Institute of Photonics
External Organisation(s): University of Münster
Heidelberg University
National Research Council Italy (CNR)
University of Oxford
University of Exeter
Type: Article
Journal: Nature Reviews Physics
Volume: 7
Pages: 439-450
No. of pages: 12
ISSN: 2522-5820
Publication date: 08.2025
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: General Physics and Astronomy
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-025-00843-3 (Access: Closed)
: Details in the research portal "Research@Leibniz University"

BibTeX

@article{a9a4dba5996f45c4a5d6c91b359dcc6b,
title = "The potential of multidimensional photonic computing",
abstract = "The rapidly increasing demands on computational throughput, bandwidth and memory capacity fuelled by breakthroughs in machine learning pose substantial challenges for conventional electronic computing platforms. Historically, advancing compute performance relied on miniaturization to increase the transistor count on a given chip area and, more recently, on the development of parallel and multicore architectures. Computing platforms that process data using multiple, orthogonal dimensions can achieve exponential scaling on trajectories much steeper than what is possible with conventional strategies. One promising analog platform is photonics, which makes use of the physics of light, such as sensitivity to material properties and ability to encode information across multiple degrees of freedom. With recent breakthroughs in integrated photonic hardware and control, large-scale photonic systems have become a practical and timely solution for data-intensive, real-time computational tasks. Here, we explain developments in the realization of multidimensional computing platforms based on photonic systems. Moving to such architectures holds promise for low-latency, high-bandwidth information processing at reduced energy consumption.",
author = "Ivonne Bente and Shabnam Taheriniya and Francesco Lenzini and Frank Br{\"u}ckerhoff-Pl{\"u}ckelmann and Michael Kues and Harish Bhaskaran and Wright, {C. David} and Wolfram Pernice",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Springer Nature Limited 2025.",
year = "2025",
month = aug,
doi = "10.1038/s42254-025-00843-3",
language = "English",
volume = "7",
pages = "439--450",
journal = "Nature Reviews Physics",
issn = "2522-5820",
publisher = "Springer Nature",
number = "8",
}

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