Super-fast computers of the future receive funding boost

Super-fast computers of the future receive funding boost. New research programme to develop nanoplasmonic devices for optical computers - For immediate release - Tuesday 1 September 2009 Computers which use light to process large amounts of data faster than ever before are just one of many groundbreaking potential applications of a new £6 million research programme at Queen's University Belfast and Imperial College London, launched today (1 September 2009). The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is funding the two universities to establish a world-leading research programme on the fundamental science of so-called 'nanoplasmonic devices'. Nanoplasmonic devices' key components are tiny nanoscale metal structures - more then 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair - that guide and direct light. The structures have been tailor-made to interact with light in an unusual and highly controlled way. This means they could one day be used to build new kinds of super-high-speed 'optical computers' - so named because they would process information using light signals, instead of the electric currents used by today's computers. At present, the speed with which computers process information is limited by the time it takes for the information to be transferred between electronic components.