System combines light and electrons to unlock faster, greener computing

“Lightning” system connects photons to the electronic components of computers using a novel abstraction, creating the first photonic computing prototype to serve real-time machine-learning inference requests.

abstraction artificial intelligence components computers computer science and technology computing electronic electronics faster inference invention light machine machine learning mit schwarzman college of computing national science foundation (nsf) novel photonic computing photonics real-time research school of engineering serve