Chinese scientists develop super-efficient all-analog photoelectronic chip

[beijingwalker]

Chinese scientists develop super-efficient all-analog photoelectronic chip​

Source: Xinhua

2023-11-03 18:18:15

This rendering shows an all-analog photoelectronic chip developed by Chinese researchers from Tsinghua University. (Tsinghua University/Handout via Xinhua)

BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers from Tsinghua University have developed an all-analog photoelectronic chip that can process computer vision tasks with greater speed and energy efficiency than existing chips.

The research team's findings, which provide an alternative to existing technologies based around analogue-to-digital conversion, have been published in the journal Nature.

Analog and digital signals are two types of signals carrying information. Analog signals vary continuously, as with the rays of light forming an image, while digital signals are non-continuous, as with binary numbers.

In vision-based computing tasks like image recognition and object detection, signals from the environment are analog, and they need to be converted into digital signals for processing by AI neural networks, systems trained to recognize patterns and relationships in a data set. However, the analog-to-digital conversion is time- and energy-consuming, limiting the speed and efficiency of the neural network's performance. Photonic computing, which uses analog light signals, is one of the most promising approaches to addressing the issue.

In the new study, the researchers designed an integrated photoelectronic processor to harness the advantages of both light, in the form of photons, and electrons, as found in electric currents, in an all-analog way. The result is called an "all-analog chip combining electronic and light computing," or ACCEL.

"We maximized the advantages of light and electricity under all-analog signals, avoiding the drawbacks of analog-to-digital conversion and breaking the bottleneck of power consumption and speed," said Fang Lu, a researcher from the Tsinghua team.

Members of the research team developing an all-analog photoelectronic chip pose for a group photo at Tsinghua University in Beijing, capital of China, April 20, 2021. (Tsinghua University/Handout via Xinhua)

Tests showed that ACCEL is able to recognize and classify objects with a degree of accuracy comparable to those of digital neural networks. Furthermore, it classifies high-resolution images of various scenes of daily life more than 3,000 times faster and with 4,000,000 times less energy consumption than a top-of-the-line GPU (graphics processing unit).

A review by Nature editors said that the team had minimized the need for energetically costly analog-to-digital converters. "This refreshing and pragmatic approach to artificial-intelligence hardware that is highly energy efficient makes the most out of both electronic and photonic computing technologies," it said.

Fang noted that the advantage of ultra-low power will help improve the heating problem of chip scaling, and it has the potential to bring breakthroughs in the future design of chips.

Dai Qionghai, director of the School of Information Science and Technology at Tsinghua University, said that the team has developed a prototype chip, and will work toward making a general-purpose artificial intelligence chip for a broader range of applications. ■

Chinese scientists develop super-efficient all-analog photoelectronic chip

Chinese scientists develop super-efficient all-analog photoelectronic chip-

english.news.cn

 

[Bilal9]

Congratulations ! The more the merrier on this sector of research !

The lowering of high energy requirement is a huge, huge leap.

I have noted with delight the development of the Chinese commercial sector in consumer photo lenses and photonics.

But I hope this will spur on commercial development of consumer photo chips in China to rival the likes of Sony's chips in DSLRs.

I wanted to see whether local Chinese camera brands like Yongnuo and Yi will venture in force into more serious interchangeable lens SLRs someday.

 

[White and Green with M/S]

Congratulations ! The more the merrier on this sector of research !

The lowering of high energy requirement is a huge, huge leap.

I have noted with delight the development of the Chinese commercial sector in consumer photo lenses and photonics.

But I hope this will spur on commercial development of consumer photo chips in China to rival the likes of Sony's chips in DSLRs.

I wanted to see whether local Chinese camera brands like Yongnuo and Yi will venture in force into interchangeable lens SLRs someday,

Source???

 

[Bilal9]

Source???

What source are you looking for? Please clarify for specific answers.

The YI M1 is from 2016 (20 MP CMOS Chip Micro 4/3rd DSLR)

New kid on the block: YI M1 review

YI enters the ILC market with its M1 mirrorless camera, boasting a 20MP Four Thirds sensor and a slick touchscreen user interface. We've got a full review of this new addition to the MFT lineup. Read more

www.dpreview.com

The 42.5mm F1.8 (85mm equiv.) prime lens can be seen on the left and the 12-40mm F3.5-5.6 (24-80mm equiv.) can be seen on the right.

Venus Optics (Laowa) Leica Mount DSLR lenses - some costing around $2000. They come in other mounts too. Venus lenses are rated better than most Japanese lenses - that is why they cost so much. Almost zero distortion.

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[Bilal9]

Yongnuo in China is a large camera, flash and lens maker having independent design capabilities, their products usually cost half of what Nikon and Canon products cost (even lenses) and image quality/precision is roughly similar to Nikon or Canon (great bang for the buck).

This one below is about $200. Japanese lenses (even those assembled in Thailand or Philippines) will cost double that of Chinese lenses. Pointless to give the Japanese their money for their extra sunk cost and economy, as they lose their market expertise, they refuse to cooperate with the Chinese.

Here is Yongnuo's 2018 premium large aperture 50mm F1.4 Canon EF-mount offering, in my opinion just as good as the Canon equivalent lens. Japanese are going to lose photo and camera business to the Chinese - just like they took it from the Germans in the early 1970's.

 

[Bilal9]

Here is a Chinese TTartisan pancake normal lens for APS-C and Micro 4/3 cameras (27mm F2.8 AF). Costs a few shekels north of a C-Note (~$160). Phenomenal performance for the price.

TTArtisan Unveils New Autofocus 27mm f/2.8 XF Lens for Fuji X

TTArtisan has announced a new 27mm f/2.8 autofocus wide-angle lens for Fujifilm X-mount mirrorless cameras.

petapixel.com