OPTICAL ARCHITECTURES FOR REPRESENTATION AND MANIPULATION OF 3D DATA OBJECTS

OPTICAL ARCHITECTURES ARE NEEDED FOR REPRESENTING AND MANIPULATING THREE-DIMENSIONAL DATA OBJECTS IN A DATABASE ENVIRONMENT. A CLASS OF ARCHITECTURES BASED ON ARRAYS OF OPTICAL LOGIC DEVICES INTERCONNECTED IN FREE SPACE WILL BE STUDIED WITH THE EXPECTATION THAT THESE SYSTEMS WILL BE COMMERCIALLY VIABLE IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS. FOR THIS CLASS OF ARCHITECTURES, SIGNAL SKEWS DO NOT ACCUMULATE FOR MORE THAN ONE LEVEL OF LOGIC SO THAT FREE-SPACE DELAY PROVIDES A STORAGE MEDIUM. THE USE OF FREE-SPACE STORAGE REDUCES OPTICAL POWER REQUIREMENTS WHILE INTRODUCING ONLY A SMALL DELAY IN STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL OF DATA OBJECTS. MANIPULATION OF 3-D OBJECTS SUCH AS TRANSLATION AND ROTATION IS SIMPLIFIED WITH THIS CLASS OF ARCHITECTURES BECAUSE OPTICAL SIGNALS TRAVEL ORTHOGONAL TO THE DEVICE SUBSTRATES, WHICH RELIEVES PINOUT CONSTRAINTS IMPOSED BY ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF THE OPTICAL SYSTEMS LIMIT STORAGE DENSITY, SPEED, SPACE-BANDWIDTH PRODUCT, AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS, WHICH WILL BE STUDIED IN PHASE I. MANIPULATION OF SPATIAL OPTICAL OBJECTS ADDRESSED IN PHASE I INCLUDES VISULAIZATION, CREATION, PROJETION, JOINING AND OTHER COMMON DATABASE OPERATIONS.