Adolf Lohmann and the Return of the Optical Computer: Vision, Legacy, and Lessons for the AI Age

In the 1980s, Adolf W. Lohmann envisioned optical computers and optical interconnects.
Infor-mation processing based on light rather than electrons, exploiting massive paralle-
lism inherent to optical systems. At the time, this vision was widely regarded as too visio-
nary and economically unrealistic. Today, as AI drives exponential data growth and pow-
er demand, photonic processors and optical interconnects promise massive efficiency
gains. This talk revisits Lohmann’s fore-sight - from Fourier optics to photonic AI. Marking
his 100th birthday, we pay tribute to Adolf W. Lohmann, a visionary whose ideas, once
ahead of their time, continue to inspire future innova-tions.
09:45-10:15 Kaffeepause
72
sium zum 100sten Geburtstag von Prof. Adolf Lohmann
Stefan Sinzinger
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