While the hardware world races toward smaller, increasingly complex electrical nodes, the semiconductor industry is bumping up against hard physical limits.
In our third podcast episode, we sitted down with Michael Kissner, Co-Founder of Akhetonics, to discuss how they are building the world's first all-optical digital general-purpose processor. Right here in Europe.
Here is why this matters for the future of high-performance computing:
- Moving Past the "Silicon Ceiling": Electronic processors have relied on parallelization since ~2006, but Amdahl's Law dictates diminishing returns. To enter the Terahertz domain, we have to look to light.
- The Power of Optical Digital Computing: Unlike noise-sensitive analog or quantum alternatives, Akhetonics utilizes a robust digital architecture. If the light is on, it computes, eliminating the accuracy errors that stall other photonic setups.
- Built for Safety-Critical Environments: Because optical signals move at a strict time-of-flight, the hardware is inherently deterministic. You know exactly how long an operation takes down to the picosecond, making it ideal for edge AI, avionics, and defense appliances.
- True European Tech Sovereignty: Their chips are designed, written, manufactured, and packaged entirely within Europe. By leveraging mature 180 nm nodes, they bypass multi-billion dollar lithography machines while radically lowering the water and power footprint of chip production.
Listen to our most recent episode in our Spotify
