{"id":187289,"date":"2025-10-09T05:18:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/187289\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T05:18:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:18:24","slug":"is-light-speed-analog-computing-on-the-horizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/187289\/","title":{"rendered":"Is light-speed analog computing on the horizon?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/back-to-the-future-is.jpg\" alt=\"Back to the future: Is light-speed analog computing on the horizon?\" title=\"Fabricated unitary universal device and its power-divider layer. Credit: UTS \/ Dr Rasool Keshavarz\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                Fabricated unitary universal device and its power-divider layer. Credit: UTS \/ Dr Rasool Keshavarz<\/p>\n<p>Scientists have achieved a breakthrough in analog computing, developing a programmable electronic circuit that harnesses the properties of high-frequency electromagnetic waves to perform complex parallel processing at light-speed.<\/p>\n<p>The discovery points to a new era of computing that operates far beyond the limits of conventional digital electronics, using less energy, while performing massive calculations.<\/p>\n<p>The study, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41467-025-63486-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Programmable circuits for analog matrix computations<\/a>,&#8221; has been published in Nature Communications.<\/p>\n<p>The research was led by Dr. Rasool Keshavarz from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Associate Professor Mohammad-Ali Miri from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), with co-authors Dr. Kevin Zelaya (RIT) and UTS Associate Professor Negin Shariati, Founding Director of the Radio Frequency and Communication Technologies (RFCT) Lab.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This breakthrough paves the way for next-generation analog radio frequency (RF) and microwave processors with applications in radar, advanced communications, sensors and space technologies that require real-time operations,&#8221; said Dr. Keshavarz, a Senior Research Fellow, Principal System Engineer and Technical Lead at the RFCT Lab.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve bridged physics and electronics to design the first programmable microwave-integrated circuit that can execute matrix transformations, a type of mathematical operation fundamental to modern technologies,&#8221; said Associate Professor Mohammad-Ali Miri.<\/p>\n<p>Conventional digital computing is limited by factors such as transistor switching, clock speed (the speed at which a digital processor executes instructions), heat generation and energy efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>Analog computing, in contrast, processes information directly using continuous signals like <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/electromagnetic+waves\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" class=\"textTag\" target=\"_blank\">electromagnetic waves<\/a>, allowing many calculations to happen in parallel and with far less energy.<\/p>\n<p>The potential applications are wide-ranging. Ultra-fast analog processors could power next-generation wireless networks, real-time radar and sensing for defense and space, advanced monitoring in mining and agriculture and new tools for industrial and <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/scientific+research\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" class=\"textTag\" target=\"_blank\">scientific research<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By establishing a platform for scalable analog <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/signal+processing\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" class=\"textTag\" target=\"_blank\">signal processing<\/a>, this collaboration positions UTS and its international partners at the forefront of a new computing paradigm, integrating device-level physics with system-level applications,&#8221; said Dr. Keshavarz.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This study marks the start of a broader research trajectory. Follow-up studies are already in preparation to expand the technology toward practical system-level architectures, so that computing can move beyond digital limits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This novel research is a great example of taking a bold concept and turning it into reality through world-class multidisciplinary collaboration,&#8221; said Associate Professor Shariati.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By bringing together expertise in electronics, RF engineering, physics, and photonics across Australia and the US, the team has moved this breakthrough from theory to a working platform, paving the way for practical, next-generation computing systems.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Keshavarz said the approach is fundamentally different from quantum computing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unlike quantum systems, which face major challenges in scalability and stability, our analog computing platform is feasible today and capable of delivering real-world applications much sooner.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>More information:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRasool Keshavarz et al, Programmable circuits for analog matrix computations, Nature Communications (2025). <a data-doi=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/s41467-025-63486-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DOI: 10.1038\/s41467-025-63486-z<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                                                Provided by<br \/>\n                                                                                                    <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/partners\/university-of-technology--sydney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">University of Technology, Sydney<\/a><br \/>\n                                                    \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"icon_open\" href=\"http:\/\/www.uts.edu.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n                                                Citation:<br \/>\n                                                Back to the future: Is light-speed analog computing on the horizon? (2025, October 7)<br \/>\n                                                retrieved 9 October 2025<br \/>\n                                                from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news\/2025-10-future-analog-horizon.html\n                                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                            This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no<br \/>\n                                            part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.\n                                            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fabricated unitary universal device and its power-divider layer. Credit: UTS \/ Dr Rasool Keshavarz Scientists have achieved a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[4563,4323,4560,4561,4564,2453,4562,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-187289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-computing","tag-computer-news","tag-computing","tag-hi-tech-news","tag-hitech","tag-information-technology","tag-innovation","tag-inventions","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}