II Digital optical computing

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the digital optical computing. Digital optical computing is a sub-area of optical computing in which a digital computing scheme is utilized as the foundation. In the digital optical computing scheme, information is represented by discrete signals and is processed in the same way as used in digital electronics. As a result, digital optical computing is suitable for cooperating with the current electronic technologies. The chapter reviews various ideas and technologies to clarify the whole image of digital optical computing and to identify the promising applications. The chapter presents the basic concepts involved in digital optical computing and describes the elemental components required for implementing a digital optical computing system. The chapter also presents the methods for constructing a desired circuitand provides an overview of the experimental systems constructed as demonstrators of the digital optical computing scheme. The chapter discusses the studies related to software development for digital optical computing.