A Survey of Ternary Optical Computer Research

TOC, as a new type of computer, uses the state of light: it uses the non light state and two polarized light states with orthogonal polarization directions to represent information, and uses a rotator and polarizer to change the three light states, thus completing ternary logic operations. This new type of computer has the advantages of numerous processor bits, independent use of processor bits in groups, and reconfigurable computing functions of processor bits; After more than 20 years of development, we have achieved fruitful results. In this paper, the research progress of ternary optical computer is comprehensively and thoroughly analyzed and summarized, from the concept of TOC theory to the kilobit processor being studied so far. Firstly, the theory of ternary optical computer is summarized. Secondly, according to the core theory of ternary optical computer and the achievements that have been made, ternary optical computer has also made some progress in software and data calculation, such as operation result file generation software, addition routine, multiplication routine, etc. Finally, the future research directions of ternary optical computer are analyzed and prospected. Firstly, the structure of ternary optical computer is introduced, and the existing research results are summarized. Finally, the future research directions of ternary optical computer are analyzed and prospected.