Laser Focus World: Please introduce us to LightSolver and tell us about the company.
Ruti Ben-Shlomi: LightSolver is a Tel Aviv, Israel-based tech startup that I founded in 2020 with Chene Tradonsky, a fellow physicist Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute. Our team consists of 25 employees, including 17 math and physics Ph.D.s.
We invented the first pure laser-based processing unit (LPU), a new computing paradigm that we expect to outpace and outperform quantum and supercomputers (see video). It uses all-optical coupled lasers that require no electronics to compute, so it can be as small as a traditional desktop computer while offering low power requirements, room-temperature operation, and unrivaled scalability.
LFW: What role do lasers play?
Ben-Shlomi: Our LPU is built from off-the-shelf laser technology and components, and it leverages the ability of lasers to interfere and fulfill all the constraints of a given problem instantaneously.
It works by converting a mathematical representation of a business problem into a physical logic formulation, then mapping this special formulation into ‘obstacles’ within the optical path in which the lasers operate.
Due to the wave nature of the lasers and the proprietary mapping, the laser beams converge into the desired solution. The solution is then measured and translated back to the business language of the user.
LFW: What does your LPU mean for high-performance computing?
Ben-Shlomi: LightSolver is a revolutionary step in the high-performance computing field. Similar to the graphics processing unit (GPU) that surpassed the central processing unit (CPU), LightSolver’s proprietary LPU can outperform today’s strongest classical supercomputers. It provides solutions to optimization problems that were previously considered unsolvable once they exceed a certain number of variables.
We help businesses solve complex multivariable optimization challenges, such as financial portfolio and trading optimization, real-time supply chain and logistics management, and complex material design, among others. Our LPU harnesses the natural properties of light to break the physical limits of electronics—providing solutions with greater speed, accuracy, and scalability than even today’s most sophisticated quantum computers and supercomputers.
LFW: Any big challenges you’ve had to overcome with your LPU?
Ben-Shlomi: To scale up to thousands of variables using only lasers, we’ll face optical challenges such as crosstalk between laser beams, which can introduce noise into the system. To overcome these obstacles, we’ll require customized high-quality and well-defined optical components, and also need to develop novel calibration procedures.
LFW: Is it ready to roll now?
Ben-Shlomi: LightSolver is available to a few select businesses today as software-as-a-service (SaaS), and commercial availability will be coming in the near future.
We plan to offer access to the LPU via cloud mid-2024.
FURTHER INFORMATION
You can follow and connect with LightSolver online: lightsolver.com, on Twitter: @lightsolverco, and on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/37529078.
Sally Cole Johnson | Editor in Chief
Sally Cole Johnson, Laser Focus World’s editor in chief, is a science and technology journalist who specializes in physics and semiconductors. She wrote for the American Institute of Physics for more than 15 years, complexity for the Santa Fe Institute, and theoretical physics and neuroscience for the Kavli Foundation.