High speed optical matrix multiplier system

Claim 1

A high-speed optical matrix multiplier system for performing matrix-vector multiplication of the form ((A M ,N)) B N ,l = C M ,l where A M ,N .tbd.M × N, representative of a linear matrix operator B N ,l .tbd.N × l, representative of a column vector input C M ,l .tbd.M × l, representative of a column vector processed output comprising: M number of optical waveguides for transmitting continuous wave, polarized light energy; a source of continuous wave, polarized light energy arranged to transmit its output along the optical paths defined by said optical waveguides; first optical modulating means coupled to said optical waveguides and responsive to a column vector type input signal for temporally modulating the light energy transmitted; second optical modulating means coupled to said optical waveguides and responsive to a row vector type input signal for temporally modulating the light energy transmitted by said optical waveguides, a polarization analyzer for converting the resultant modulations in polarization and phase of light energy to commensurate intensity modulations for each optical waveguide; and a photo-responsive detector disposed to receive and cumulatively store the modulated light energy output of each optical waveguide over a time period synchronous with the time periods of said column vector type input signal and said row vector type input signal.