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Today’s computer components are connected to each other using copper cables or traces on circuit boards. Due to the signal degradation that comes with using metals such as copper to transmit data, these cables have a limited maximum length. This limits the design of computers, forcing processors, memory and other components to be placed just inches from each other. Intel has announced an important breakthrough that could see light beams replace the use of electrons to carry data in and around computers, enabling data to move over much longer distances and at speeds many times faster than today’s copper technology. |
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The company has developed a research prototype it says represents the world’s first silicon-based optical data connection with integrated lasers. The link can move data at speeds of up to 50 gigabits per second – that’s the equivalent of an entire HD movie being transmitted each second. The achievement is another step toward replacing metal connections with extremely thin and light optical fibers that could radically change the way computers of the future are designed and alter the way the datacenter of tomorrow is built. Silicon photonics is expected to have applications across the computing industry. Intel says the data rates possible with the technology could enable wall-sized 3D displays for home entertainment and videoconferencing with resolutions so high that the actors or family members appear to be in the room with you. While telecommunications and other applications already use lasers to transmit information, current technologies are too expensive and bulky to be used for PC applications. The 50Gbps link is akin to a "concept vehicle" that allows Intel researchers to test new ideas and continue the company's quest to develop technologies that transmit data over optical fibers, using light beams from low cost and easy to make silicon, instead of costly and hard to make devices using exotic materials like gallium arsenide.
(Source: Gizmag) |
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