单项选择题
Electronic computer speeds are restricted not only by the speed of electrons
in matter but also by the escalating density of interconnections necessary to
connect the electronic gates on microchips. Electrical engineers and physicists
Line have been developing and augmenting the technologies of analog and digital
(5) optical computing, in which the information is primarily carried by photons
rather than by electrons. Optical computing could, in principle, generate much
higher computer speeds, but one of the problems it has encountered lies in
accuracy, for these devices have practical limits of 8 to 11 bits of accuracy in
basic operations. Recent research has evinced that digital partitioning
(10) algorithms in tandem with error-correction codes, can substantially enhance the
accuracy of optical computing operations. In the near term optical computers
will most likely be hybrid optical/electronic systems that preprocess input data
for computation and post-process output data via electronic circuits, but
nevertheless, the prospect of all-optical computing remains highly attractive.
(A) Although the future of optical computing is impressive, its applications are too limited in scope to justify much optimism.
(B) The outlook of its development is positive on the surface, but many claims made about it are misleading.
(C) Efforts to develop the technology have been sufficiently positive to maintain the interest of electrical engineers and physicists.
(D) Because of design flaws, the task of developing optical computing will require greater resources than are presently available.
(E) The state of development of optical computing is too contradictory to allow for an easy assessment of its future.