Re:This is extremely promising and novel (Score 1)

Indeed, this is a huge breakthrough. We did research back in the 80's on photonic ALUs assuming that someone would eventually be able to fabricate optical components in Si. It took longer than we expected. We were able to demonstrate on optical adder back then using very gross components; sometimes huge crystal chunks (barium nitrate, I think)!!! The switch worked by electrically switching the polarities within the crystal structure. This is a dream come true.