A nine-context programmable optically reconfigurable gate array with semiconductor lasers

Recently, optically reconfigurable gate arrays (ORGAs), which consist of a gate array VLSI, a holographic memory, and a laser array, have been developed to achieve a huge virtual gate count that is much larger than those of currently available VLSIs. Consequently, ORGAs with more than tera-gate capacity will be realized by exploiting the storage capacity of a holographic memory. However, compared with current field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), conventional ORGAs have an important shortcoming: they are not reprogrammable after fabrication because, to reprogram ORGAs, a holographic memory must be disassembled from its ORGA package, reprogrammed outside of the ORGA package using a holographic memory writer, and then implemented onto the ORGA package with high precision beyond the capability of manual assembly. To remove that daunting problem, this paper presents a nine-context programmable ORGA and its writer. Furthermore, this paper presents discussion of the availability of this architecture and future plans based on experimental results.