Light-based computers, once a futuristic dream, are now on the verge of becoming real-world products. In what could be one of the biggest technological leaps since the invention of the microchip, companies are racing to bring optical computing into the mainstream. This technology, which uses light instead of electricity to process data, promises to revolutionize everything from artificial intelligence to big data, offering faster, more energy-efficient computation than anything we’ve seen before.
What Is Optical Computing?
Traditional computers, including your smartphone and laptop, rely on electrons moving through silicon circuits to perform calculations. This setup has served us well for decades, but as we push for more power, speed, and efficiency, we’re hitting physical and thermal limits. That’s where optical computing comes in.
Instead of using electricity, optical computers rely on photons—particles of light—to carry and process information. Since photons move faster than electrons and generate much less heat, they can potentially process huge amounts of data at blazing speeds without overheating.
Optical computing has been a goal for researchers for many years, but building chips that can use light effectively has proven to be a major challenge—until now.
A Startup Breaks Through the Barrier
The spotlight is now on a company called Lightmatter, a Boston-based startup making serious waves in this space. The firm has developed a chip called Envise, which it describes as a hybrid computer processor that combines traditional electronics with photonics. Rather than replacing all electronic components with optical ones, Lightmatter’s approach integrates both, giving us the best of both worlds.
Envise is designed to accelerate AI-related tasks—think of training large language models or powering smart assistants. What makes it stand out is how it uses beams of light to multiply numbers, one of the most crucial and resource-hungry operations in AI computing.
By performing these calculations optically, Envise can do the same job as today’s processors but with a fraction of the energy and at much faster speeds. This has huge implications for data centers, which consume vast amounts of electricity globally and are growing rapidly.
Why This Is a Big Deal
Beyond speed and energy savings, optical chips may reshape the entire computing industry. With rising demand for more powerful AI models and real-time data processing, current silicon-based technologies are beginning to show their age. Photonic processors could allow us to build smarter devices that are not just quicker but also significantly greener.
For instance, one of the key advantages of optical chips is that they don’t suffer from the same heat buildup as traditional chips. That means they can be packed more densely and used for longer without overheating, which is a critical factor in large-scale computing environments.
Additionally, photonic chips aren’t bound by the same clock-speed limitations as traditional processors. In theory, this could allow for nearly instant data transfer within a chip—leading to computers that are exponentially faster than what we use today.
How Close Are We to a Commercial Launch?
According to Lightmatter, its optical chips are already being tested with select customers and partners. A full commercial launch is expected soon, possibly within the next year. Other tech firms are also eyeing the market, meaning we may soon see real competition and rapid progress.
That said, challenges remain. Manufacturing optical chips at scale is still more complicated than producing conventional semiconductors. Integrating them into existing systems and software will also require major adaptations. But with the benefits so significant, the momentum is clearly building.
A Light-Filled Future
For now, optical computing is in its early days—but the potential is enormous. As the world seeks faster, more sustainable technologies to handle its growing appetite for data and AI, computing with light might be the next big thing.
In the not-so-distant future, you may find that the device you’re using to stream movies, work remotely, or even run a robot assistant is powered by beams of light rather than electric current. That shift could redefine what we expect from computers—and open up possibilities we haven’t even imagined yet.
