The projects focus on alternatives to conventional computer chips, which are increasingly reaching their physical and energy limits. Within this collaboration between the countries, researchers from the Netherlands and Japan are pooling their expertise in the development of smarter computer hardware and software. The new approaches are intended to contribute to faster and more efficient forms of data processing. From computing with light to a quantum brain – the selected projects present unconventional ideas that work towards the necessary tools for a data-driven future.
Computing with light: much faster and more energy-efficient than electronic chips
Current computers compute using electrical signals. The OPERA project is investigating a radically different approach: computing with light. Researchers are designing special materials through which light is directed. As the light travels, it performs calculations automatically, as it were. This can be done much faster and with far less energy than with traditional electronic chips.
This technology offers new possibilities for the computers of the future. It could make a significant difference particularly in applications such as medical imaging, as analyses take place faster and consume less energy.
Supercomputer of the future: a single system with four types of hardware
Supercomputers are crucial for research into, for example, new medicines, climate models and AI, but still mainly run on traditional processors. New technologies such as quantum hardware, GPUs and neuromorphic chips are rarely combined, as they are difficult to make work together.
The project ‘Cross-Paradigm Orchestration of Quantum Computers, Neuromorphic Chips, and Conventional Accelerators’ is developing software that automatically determines which computational task is best suited to which type of hardware. This will create a new generation of supercomputers in which classical processors, GPUs, quantum components and neuromorphic chips work together effectively — faster, more energy-efficient and better suited to complex scientific applications.
Visit the NWO website for an overview of the projects and more.
