Neuromorphic photonic Ising computer solves complex optimization problems and runs at room temperature/ stays stable for hours

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-based-ising-room-temperature-stays.html

"solves massive binary choice hurdles (protein folding for drug discovery/ logistics routing)... instead of magnets uses light pulses in loop representing up/ down states, settling into lowest-energy configuration to find optimal solution... scalable using commercially available fiber optics, lasers, modulators... stable for hours, billions of operations/ second, tens of thousands of variables, achieved 256 spins using only 5 basic components, fast/ energy efficient... future: increasing spin count, drug modeling"