Communication Needs

Is it possible to build a functional computer using fibre optics instead of copper circuits?

Public Comments

1. Theoretically. However i don't believe you would gain anything by doing it. As its only over short distances you'd lose more in the electrical - light converters than you would lose running the copper wires. However if your computer was spread over an entire building say, then yes it could gain you something, and networking is frequently done with fiber optics for that reason.
2. I agree that is is possible in some aspects. It would be impossible to avoid copper circuitry altogether (such as IC chip connections, etc.) Electricity travels through copper at 2/3 the speed of light. This slight gain in speed is slightly offset by the conversion from light to eletricity. However, this becomes trivial when you compare speeds. A single fiber optic cable can support data transfer rates of 10 Gb/sec or more. That is far beyond any personal computing requirements of today's computers. Optical fiber is also desirable because of it's electromagnetic immunity.