Indian American achieves breakthrough in computing technology
Agencies Posted online: Wed Feb 22 2012, 16:06 hrs
Washington : A firm headed by an Indian American has claimed to have achieved a breakthrough in Physics which will profoundly change the IT world and cut down ever-rising demand for power in computing.At the core of this breakthrough is to get the element Germanium to act as a laser, for use as a light source on a new generation of mass produced silicon semiconductor chips using light particles or photons, instead of electronics for its functions- i.e. photonic chips.
The breakthrough by entrepreneur Dr Birendra Raj (Dutt) along with a top team of researchers at his own company APIC Corporation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University will result in computer chips providing much greater performance at a tiny fraction of current power usage.
IIT Kharagpur alumni Dutt is CEO of APIC Corporation.
"APIC has achieved creating a Germanium LASER, until now thought to be impossible. Take these results as the Kitty Hawk demonstration where it was shown that manned flight was achievable," said Tony Tether, former Director of US Defence research organisation DARPA.
Dutt and APIC have teamed with the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in New York State (CNSE), with a plan of producing a fully manufacturable photonic chip in 2 years using this technology.
"Both the scientific community and industry have been waiting for a breakthrough like this and I am extremely proud of my team," Dutt said.
"But I am most excited about the practical effect on the world. We will now be able to use photons for many of the information functions that electrons have performed on silicon computer chips -- drastically reducing their power consumption while supercharging their performance," he said.
"This could contribute immensely to India's efforts to put make online services widely available for the public, and especially in isolated areas," Dutt said.
Dutt said the computer industry may feel the biggest effects of this groundbreaking feat.
The explosion in Internet requirements and data centers worldwide has resulted in enormous amounts of energy needed to satisfy the demand of all these power-hungry
electronic processors.
Not only would Photonic chips use a fraction of the power currently needed, but because photons do not generate heat, much of the cooling used in computers and data centers also would be unnecessary, cascading the savings effect on the energy needed.
It will also reduce land and building requirements to accommodate the space and cooling equipment normally associated.
"Photonics is good for the environment." said Dutt.
"Photonic microprocessors will bring two enormous related advantages over conventional computing: speed-of-light communications and parallel processing," said Dutt.
"We have solved the latency problem that plagues multicore processors and complex computing," he added.
Programming has become extremely complicated to accommodate tiny differences in the times of arrival among electron signals to their cores, he noted adding that in in a photonic chip, all cores can talk to all other cores simultaneously, at the speed of light, so there is no delay.
"Photonics brings true parallel processing, emulating the human brain," said Dutt.
"Even the fastest computers today perform every function in serial, one after another, the same as they did last century. But the reason even a child can outthink most computers is that we process our information in parallel; we can access each memory and experience simultaneously, at once, to make a decision. Photonic microprocessors will be able to do that."
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/indian-american-achieves-breakthrough-in-computing-technology/915297/1
The breakthrough by entrepreneur Dr Birendra Raj (Dutt) along with a top team of researchers at his own company APIC Corporation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University will result in computer chips providing much greater performance at a tiny fraction of current power usage.
IIT Kharagpur alumni Dutt is CEO of APIC Corporation.
"APIC has achieved creating a Germanium LASER, until now thought to be impossible. Take these results as the Kitty Hawk demonstration where it was shown that manned flight was achievable," said Tony Tether, former Director of US Defence research organisation DARPA.
Dutt and APIC have teamed with the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in New York State (CNSE), with a plan of producing a fully manufacturable photonic chip in 2 years using this technology.
"Both the scientific community and industry have been waiting for a breakthrough like this and I am extremely proud of my team," Dutt said.
"But I am most excited about the practical effect on the world. We will now be able to use photons for many of the information functions that electrons have performed on silicon computer chips -- drastically reducing their power consumption while supercharging their performance," he said.
"This could contribute immensely to India's efforts to put make online services widely available for the public, and especially in isolated areas," Dutt said.
Dutt said the computer industry may feel the biggest effects of this groundbreaking feat.
The explosion in Internet requirements and data centers worldwide has resulted in enormous amounts of energy needed to satisfy the demand of all these power-hungry
electronic processors.
Not only would Photonic chips use a fraction of the power currently needed, but because photons do not generate heat, much of the cooling used in computers and data centers also would be unnecessary, cascading the savings effect on the energy needed.
It will also reduce land and building requirements to accommodate the space and cooling equipment normally associated.
"Photonics is good for the environment." said Dutt.
"Photonic microprocessors will bring two enormous related advantages over conventional computing: speed-of-light communications and parallel processing," said Dutt.
"We have solved the latency problem that plagues multicore processors and complex computing," he added.
Programming has become extremely complicated to accommodate tiny differences in the times of arrival among electron signals to their cores, he noted adding that in in a photonic chip, all cores can talk to all other cores simultaneously, at the speed of light, so there is no delay.
"Photonics brings true parallel processing, emulating the human brain," said Dutt.
"Even the fastest computers today perform every function in serial, one after another, the same as they did last century. But the reason even a child can outthink most computers is that we process our information in parallel; we can access each memory and experience simultaneously, at once, to make a decision. Photonic microprocessors will be able to do that."
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/indian-american-achieves-breakthrough-in-computing-technology/915297/1
Dr. Birendra (Raj) Dutt PhD.
Chairman & CEO of APIC Corp. and PhotonIC Corp.
On discovery’s edge….at the speed of light.
Dr. Raj Dutt is on the leading edge of the new wave of technology entrepreneurs who are key to keeping the United States in the forefront of the immensely important (both commercially and militarily) science of Photonics. His research and contributions in theoretical and experimental applied physics, fluid mechanics, image understanding, robotics and artificial intelligence have allowed him to understand the vital role that optical networks play in adding significant advantages to avionics multi-processors providing reduced weight, improved resistance to electromagnetic interference, and significant cost savings for operation and maintenance.
Dr. Dutt originally developed these technologies for military applications via his APIC Corporation. As the technology has matured it is now entering the commercial realm with almost unlimited potential for use across almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum through APIC’s commercial arm – PhotonIC. “Our experience is in designing and producing cost saving, light weight components for rugged, durable advanced integrated electro-photonic components of fiber-optic local area networks for the Department of Defense,” says Dr. Dutt “This innovative technology has given us a considerable lead in producing state-of-the-art photonics for a potentially huge commercial marketplace.”
Dr Dutt was born into one of India’s leading military families. His father Squadron Leader Samar Krishna Dutt nicknamed "Charlie” was a fighter pilot who began his career flying Spitfires for Britain’s Royal Air Force in the Second World War. After India’s independence from Britain at “the stroke of midnight” on August 15, 1947, Dutt senior continued his career with the Indian Air Force for many years. Although ostensibly retired he vanished while on a covert mission over Pakistan in 1974. Dr. Dutt’s sister and mother continue to live in Kolkata (Calcutta), the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal and the cultural capital of India.
At the time of his father’s disappearance Dr. Dutt was already well into his career path, graduating with Honors from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India in early 1971. Realizing that his skills and training would give him better opportunities in the United States he immigrated to Los Angeles in July 1971. There he continued his education with a Postdoctoral Fellow from the University of Southern California in 1976-1977studying Nonlinear Physics of Solitons; this was followed by a Ph.D. in Experimental Fluid Mechanics from the University of Southern California in 1976 (GPA 4.0/4.0) with his Thesis work undertaken at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. He finally earned his M.S. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Returning to California, Dr. Dutt also served as Adjunct Professor of Medicine; University of Southern California Medical School’s Institute for Genetic Medicine (IGM) and served on IGM’s Board of Trustees.
With his education behind him Dr Dutt began his career as an entrepreneur by founding Research & Development Laboratories (RDL) in Los Angeles, California, emphasizing High-Technology R & D in Radar, Electro-Optics, Image Processing, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Processing. RDL opened its doors on January 15, 1984, with a staff of 16 scientists and 6 consultants, including a Nobel Laureate in Physics, Dr. Julian Schwinger. In less than four weeks the company was awarded a number of major government contracts with a backlog of approximately $1.5 million.
In 1999, Dr. Dutt founded APIC Corporation, in Los Angeles, California with the mission of inventing pioneering technology in the embryonic photonics industry. This encompasses work in the areas of microelectronics, photonics and electronic integration. Products include Highly Integrated Photonic Circuits incorporating a variety of functional components using Silicon-on-Insulator. In October 2002, he founded AIP, Inc., a subsidiary of APIC Corporation, based in Honolulu, Hawaii. This R&D facility is capable of prototyping methods for fabrication and processing of 200mm wafers containing SOI (Silicon-on-Insulator)-based photonic media. This AIP, Inc facility encompasses development and operation of design, modeling and testing capabilities in support of standard and/or novel processing technology for commercial prototyping of photonic integrated circuits and related devices.
Under the leadership of Dr. Dutt, APIC has continued to grow throughout the first decade of the new millennium providing technological knowhow to the U.S. military including Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) for the development of Networks Enabled by Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM). WDM is a technology which multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths (colors) of laser light enabling multiplication of capacity.WDM Highly Integrated Photonics is Network Enabled WDM - known as (NEW-HIP). “We are very proud that DARPA selected APIC to advance the technology of the NEW-HIP program,” says Dr. Dutt. NEW-HIP is jointly funded and managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).
Dr. Dutt founded PhotonIC Corp in February 2007 with the goal of commercializing the technology developed under defense contracts by APIC Corporation. All intellectual property, technology and know how were licensed/transferred to PhotonIC. Dr. Dutt has been Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors since the establishment of PhotonIC.
Throughout the years, Dr. Dutt has built an outstanding reputation in the Department of Defense and in the intelligence community for his ability to take on exceedingly difficult technical problems and suggest novel solutions. In the last two decades Dr. Dutt has researched and developed several significant patents in the fields of radar, applied physics, and photonics awarded by the U.S. Patent Office. He is married with two children and lives on the west side of Los Angeles.
APIC Corporation is headquartered at 5800 Uplander Way, Culver City, CA 90230. Tel: (310) 642-7975 ext. 125 with offices in Washington D.C.; Albany, NY; Boston, MA; Palo Alto, CA; Melbourne, FL and advanced Photonics laboratory facilities in Honolulu, HI. APIC Corporation is a world leader and supplier to the US Military in the development of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.
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