This thesis presents the design and verification of a custom RISC-V processor implemented on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology. The project optimized hardware efficiency, achieved stable 50 MHz performance, and enabled software execution using SystemVerilog design and official benchmarks. It demonstrates how open-source hardware enables affordable, customizable computing solutions.

This research develops photonic integrated circuits that compute with light instead of electrons. The team built the first on-chip all-optical transistor, enabling ultra-fast optical processors and neural networks that can outperform electronic hardware by orders of magnitude. The work moves us toward practical, high-speed photonic computing for everyday devices.