The World’s First


All-Optical

General-Purpose Processor

Akhetonics is creating the world’s first all-optical XPU, a cross-domain processor for general-purpose, ultra-low power, high-performance computing and AI.  With our in-house developed photonic design automation tools and all-optical control flow we created a new platform, beyond the typical von Neumann architecture, designed specifically for photonics. We do this by uniquely combining the best of optical digital computing with optical analog computing and optical quantum computing. Furthermore, our photonic processors are created using a purely European supply chain, from fabrication to packaging, allowing for an unmatched security in the high-performance computing domain.

Optical Data Interface

Our interface to the world is optical. Data enters and leaves optically through the network and remains in the processor in the optical domain even while processed, never converting to an electronic signal.

Cross Domain Processor

The heart is the all-optical XPU, which acts as the conductor and controls the flow of information between memory, network and RFUs.

Volatile Memory

Each XPU has its own optical local and stack memory to aid in processing. They are the main way how results are accumulated and passed on from operation to operation.

Non-Volatile Memory

Code is stored in a separate read-only optical memory, to ensure speed and security during operation. For large amounts of data, the global optical memory acts as the storage for anything from image data to large language models.

Digital, Analog & Quantum​

Optical digital, analog and quantum computing share almost all characteristics in a single photonics platform. From analog vector matrix multiplication, quantum feed-forward to digital logic – in the first cross-domain computer.

Dynamic Systolic Array​

The RFUs are special purpose optical accelerators for either digital, analog or quantum operations, which are dynamically combinable. Working in parallel, they act as the orchestra to the conducting XPU.

THz Clocking

Optical processors can switch at neck breaking speeds. Instead of GHz clock speeds found in electronics, the optical computer will dominate the THz domain.

Powering Up

Even an all-optical computer needs electricity to power lasers, amplifiers and tuners. However, the data itself passing through the processor never touches the electronic domain.​

01
Optical Data Interface
learn more
02
Cross Domain Processor
learn more
03
Volatile Memory
learn more
04
Non-Volatile Memory
learn more
05
Digital, Analog & Quantum
learn more
06
Systolic Array
learn more
07
THz Clocking
learn more
08
Powering Up
learn more
Our interface to the world is optical. Data enters and leaves optically through the network and remains in the processor in the optical domain even while processed, never converting to an electronic signal.
The heart is the all-optical XPU, which acts as the conductor and controls the flow of information between memory, network and RFUs.
Each XPU has ist own optical local and stack memory to aid in processing. They are the main way how results are accumulated and passed on from operation to operation.
Code is stored in a seperate read-only optical memory, to ensure speed and security during operation. For large amounts of data, the global optical memory acts as the storage for anything from image data to large language models.
Optical digital, analog and quantum computing share almost all characteristics in a single photonics platform. From analog vector matrix multiplication, quantum feed-forward to digital logic – in the first cross-domain computer.
The RFUs are special purpose optical accelerators for either digital, analog or quantum operations, which are dynamically combinable. Working in parallel, they act as the orchestra to the conducting XPU.
Optical processors can switch at neck breaking speeds. Instead of GHz clock speeds found in electronics, the optical computer will dominate the THz domain.
Even an all-optical computer needs electricity to power lasers, amplifiers and tuners. However, the data itself passing through the processor never touches the electronic domain.
1. Optical Nonlinearities

A computer that can only perform linear operations is not very interesting. Every general-purpose processor needs to be able to perform non-linear operations – which are notoriously hard in optics, even more so when doing it on a chip. Our technology is built around our know-how to generate these nonlinearities in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC). Solving this has been key to our ability to create our all-optical cross-domain compute capabilities.

2. Optical Computing Building Blocks

With our integrated non-linear optical components, we can create much more complex devices. In the digital domain, it allows us to create optical logic gates, in the analog domain, we can create complex mathematical operations. For quantum, it allows us to create an all-optical feed-forward for continuous variables. And, of course, it allows us to create optical memory.

3. Photonic compute circuits

By combining these all-optical computing building blocks, we can create anything. Be it a general-purpose digital optical CPU, an analog optical AI accelerator or an optical quantum computer. But to truly take advantage of the power of optical computing, we need to combine these domains. To be able to do that, we have components such as an all-optical analog-digital converter (ADC). This allows us, for example, to do optical digital control flow and combine it with optical analog mathematics.

4. Cross-Domain Processing Unit (XPU)

Our unique computer architecture goes beyond von Neumann and introduces the next generation of processing. Using our ability to combine our diverse optical compute blocks, we have devised the first architecture that goes beyond the digital domain to take advantage of the power of analog and quantum computing.

5. High Performance at Low Power

There is no limit to the parallelization of our XPUs. Be it by adding more cores or by adding more wavelengths through mulitplexing. Optics offers a unique path to higher performance, while keeping the power consumption at bay. The entire architecture is designed around this premise, offering the user an to use programming interface to take advantage of all these features, without bogging them down with details.

6. Deploy anywhere, anytime

Low power consumption automatically means, low heat output. Our processors are so efficient, the need for fancy cooling solutions or special environments goes away. This allows the deployment of our high-performance processors under unconventional conditions outside of the data center. Who wouldn’t love to see a rugged, ultra high-performance, low power compute solution at the edge?

01
Bandwidth

Scaling the bandwidth of data transmitted and processed using light can be achieved extremely economically through multiplexing. This allows moving petabits of data through a tiny and single fiber.

02
Efficiency

Light in waveguides is a near lossless way to transmit data over long distances. And computing with light is almost as lossless.This is in stark contrast to electronics, where mere centimeters already reduce the efficiency noticably and resistors wasting immense amounts of energy.

03
Speed

As the data always stays optical in transmission, compute and storage, we completely eliminate the need for constant conversion between electronics and optics. This saves a lot of latency, further enhanced by the overall speed-up thanks to fast optical interactions.

Start the Optical Computing Revolution