Optoelectronic parallel processing with straight-pass optical interconnections and smart pixel arrays

Several fine and medium grain parallel computer architectures comprise multiple stages of 2D processing element arrays. The parallel massive interconnections between two such stages can be implemented in optics. Straight-pass interconnections, as one possible interconnection scheme, can be easily realized with a lens or a lenslet array and their simplicity and regularity permits easy scale-up. We have identified four application classes with operations that can be performed in parallel by straight pass interconnections between smart pixel arrays. These classes include numerical computations such as data comparison and sorting, associative processing, database operations in a relational database environment, and image processing operations. We propose several implementations which use vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers as emitters and heterostructure phototransistors as detectors