Floating-point multiplication unit and floating point photonic tensor accelerator

A floating point number vector multiplication unit comprising:

• a first vector for multiplication based on
• a first wave modulator that receives a first signal representing an exponent of a first floating point number mapped onto a frequency of a first harmonic wave and a second signal representing a significand of the first floating point number mapped onto an amplitude of the first harmonic wave to produce a first floating point number, representing a first factor in a multiplication;
• a second wave modulator that receives a third signal representing an exponent of a second floating point number mapped onto a frequency of a second harmonic wave and a fourth signal representing a significand of the second floating point number mapped onto an amplitude of the second harmonic wave to produce a second floating point number representing a second factor in a multiplication;
• a series arrangement in which the first wave modulator and the second wave modulator are connected in succession as a first stage and a second stage, with the first factor in the multiplication is combined with the third signal to produce a multiplication product of the first factor and the second factor;
• a second vector for multiplication based on
• a third wave modulator that receives a fifth signal representing an exponent of a third floating point number mapped onto a frequency of a third harmonic wave and a sixth signal representing a significand of the third floating point number mapped onto an amplitude of the third harmonic wave to produce a third floating point number, representing a third factor in a multiplication;
• a fourth wave modulator that receives a seventh signal representing an exponent of a fourth floating point number mapped onto a frequency of a fourth harmonic wave and a fourth signal representing a significand of the fourth floating point number mapped onto an amplitude of the fourth harmonic wave to produce a fourth floating point number representing a fourth factor in a multiplication;
• and
• a series arrangement in which the third wave modulator and the fourth wave modulator are connected in succession as a third stage and a fourth stage, with the third factor in the multiplication is combined with the seventh signal to produce a multiplication product of third factor and the fourth factor;
• and
• a summation unit that sums the multiplication product of first factor and the second factor with the multiplication product of third factor and the fourth factor to produce a multiplication of the first vector with the second vector.