Our imec.xpand portfolio company Optalysys has partnered with Google HEIR to integrate its photonic processing technology into HEIR’s compiler toolchain for Fully Homomorphic Encryption.
Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is an advanced cryptography method that allows encrypted data to be processed without needing to be decrypted. It allows organisations to process data while maintaining privacy, opening up opportunities for secure data collaboration across industries, even in untrusted environments. However, the high processing demands of FHE, which are far greater than traditional computing, have posed a barrier to its widespread adoption and commercial viability. Optical computing could increase the operational speed of FHE by four orders of magnitude.
Dr Nick New, CEO of Optalysys: “Our partnership with Google HEIR is a milestone for both photonic computing and the FHE ecosystem. This is the first time that photonic processing has been integrated into an FHE toolchain, and the results from our trial demonstrate significant improvements in performance. Optalysys’ technology is uniquely positioned to address the demanding computational needs of FHE and this collaboration is a major step toward faster, more efficient, and accessible encryption.”
Read the full announcement on the Optalysys website.