Vector-Matrix Multiplication in Ternary Optical Computer

Abstract

This paper proposes a new means to complete the optical vector-matrix multiplication (OVMM). The OVMM is implemented on a novel optical computing architecture, ternary optical computer (TOC) by using modified signed-digit (MSD) number system. In addition, this study realizes optical addition in three steps, independent of the length of the operands, by four transformations in MSD, and discusses the multiplication of two MSD numbers in detail. A preliminary experimentation about the OVMM is performed on TOC. It illustrates that the proposed method for OVMM is feasible and correct.