Microsoft turns to photons to solve complex optimization problems

Microsoft has been working on a novel type of computer that combines analog optical components and digital electronics to process data. Dubbed the Analog Iterative Machine (AIM), it’s designed to solve complex optimization problems that traditional computers struggle with. Though still a research project, Microsoft is actively engaging with external partners to explore the performance of the technology in real-world scenarios.

AIM addresses two simultaneous trends, says Microsoft. First, it sidesteps the diminishing growth of computing capacity per dollar in digital chips. Second, it overcomes the limitations of specialized machines designed for solving optimization problems. Despite over two decades of research and substantial industry investment, such unconventional machines have a limited range of practical applications because they can only address optimization problems with binary values. As it turns out, it’s hard to map real-world problems at scale to the binary abstraction.