I don't see photonics doing the data processing anytime soon. For that our current electronics works just fine.
What we do with photonics is to improve areas where the electronics is not efficient.
Case and point: interconnections. If you want to move data from point A to point B (being A and B either two different chips in your board our two datacenters), we can do it using electric signals, it works just fine, but at some cost. Electric signals dissipate power when they travel through a conductor, no matter how good the conductor is.
If instead we use optical signals instead of electrical, we have advantage in a number of points, specially power efficiency.
What we do with photonics is to improve areas where the electronics is not efficient.
Case and point: interconnections. If you want to move data from point A to point B (being A and B either two different chips in your board our two datacenters), we can do it using electric signals, it works just fine, but at some cost. Electric signals dissipate power when they travel through a conductor, no matter how good the conductor is.
If instead we use optical signals instead of electrical, we have advantage in a number of points, specially power efficiency.