> I assume there's an element of cost, and once the photons get where they're going they have to be turned back into electrical signals to actually be used until such time as we get around to getting pure light based computers working (someday but not yet...)
You got it. We can't make optical transceivers as good as electrical ones. Not as small or power-efficient.
They require significantly different fabrication processes, and we don't know how to fab them into the same chip as electrical ones. I mean: you can either have photonics, or performant digital (or analog) electronics.
We've gotten really, really good at making small electronics, per the latest tech coming out of Intel & TSMC. We are... not that good at making photonics.
You got it. We can't make optical transceivers as good as electrical ones. Not as small or power-efficient.
They require significantly different fabrication processes, and we don't know how to fab them into the same chip as electrical ones. I mean: you can either have photonics, or performant digital (or analog) electronics.
We've gotten really, really good at making small electronics, per the latest tech coming out of Intel & TSMC. We are... not that good at making photonics.