Efficient neural network accelerators with optical computing and communication

Conventional electronic Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) accelerators focus
 on architecture design and numerical computation optimization to improve the
 training efficiency. However, these approaches have recently encountered
 bottlenecks in terms of energy efficiency and computing performance, which
 leads to an increase interest in photonic accelerator. Photonic
 architectures with low energy consumption, high transmission speed and high
 bandwidth have been considered as an important role for generation of
 computing architectures. In this paper, to provide a better understanding of
 optical technology used in ANN acceleration, we present a comprehensive
 review for the efficient photonic computing and communication in ANN
 accelerators. The related photonic devices are investigated in terms of the
 application in ANNs acceleration, and a classification of existing solutions
 is proposed that are categorized into optical computing acceleration and
 optical communication acceleration according to photonic effects and
 photonic architectures. Moreover, we discuss the challenges for these
 photonic neural network acceleration approaches to highlight the most
 promising future research opportunities in this field.