But maybe not for long.

Computers are limited by their electronic components, and the speed with which the data can be transferred and processed over the wires and metal components. And we are near the limit, according to a ScienceAlert report, where we physically cannot improve on the current system. So what’s next?

A research team in Surrey has been working on creating a glass like material that could use light to integrate different functions in one component, like the super-fast CRAM. “The challenge is to find a single material that can effectively use and control light to carry information around a computer,” said Dr Richard Curry, who has been leading at Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI).

Engineers at Stanford may have done just that. They have developed what could be the first of many components that would power photonic computers, meaning computers that carry data via light rather than electricity.

How the Stanford components work:

The team based their research on the understanding of how light’s speed changes when it passes through different substances. In this case, silicon and air. A silicon part, working like a miniature prism, splits and bends waves of light. The study focuses on splitting C-band and O-band lights, since they are present in current fiber optic networks and have the most immediate application. Stanford researchers used an advanced algorithm to design the prism, and using alternating materials they were able to refract the light and direct it where they wanted the light to go. The resulting structure, called an optical link, looks like a lot like barcode.

“Light can carry more data than a wire, and it takes less energy to transmit photons than electrons,” said electrical engineering Professor Jelena Vuckovic, who led the research.

While we may be 10 years away from a light powered computer, researcher are excited by the applications for today’s fiber optic networks, as well as the application in certain computer components. One thing’s for sure, light may no longer be the fastest particle in the universe, but it is light years ahead of electric current.

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Governments and leading technology companies are quickly trying to develop quantum computers as they possess superior data-crunching abilities.

“It is truly a disruptive technology that could change how we do everything,” says Deepak Biswas, director of exploration technology at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

Biswas spoke at a press conference about NASA’s work with Google in establishing the world’s first commercial quantum computer. The computer is installed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and operates on data using a superconducting chip called a quantum annealer. An annelaer is hard-coded with an algorithm suited to what are called “optimization problems,” which are common in machine-learning and artificial-intelligence software.

The implications of quantum computing is huge – these machines could be programmed to take on any problem and would be much more useful than its contemporary alternatives.  John Giannandrea, a VP of enfineering at Google who coordinates the company’s research, said, “…if quantum annealers could be made practical, they would find many uses powering up Google’s machine-learning software. We’ve already encountered problems in the course of our products impractical to solve with existing computers, and we have a lot of computers,” he said. However, Giannandrea noted, “it may be several years before this research makes a difference to Google products.”

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