This article has a link to the IEEE electonic devices meeting, and flipping through the presentations, optical interconnects come up, leading to the still rather sci-fi notion of the photonic computer:
> "In principle, all-optical digital signal processing and routing is achievable using optical transistors arranged into photonic integrated circuits. The same devices could be used to create new types of optical amplifiers to compensate for signal attenuation along transmission lines."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_transistor
> "In principle, all-optical digital signal processing and routing is achievable using optical transistors arranged into photonic integrated circuits. The same devices could be used to create new types of optical amplifiers to compensate for signal attenuation along transmission lines."