IBM optical chip set allows instant downloads

[techs]

http://computerworld.com/action/article...Id=9014260&taxonomyId=12&intsrc=kc_top

IBM optical chip set allows instant downloads

March 26, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- IBM researchers showed a prototype optical transceiver chip set Monday that they said will allow people to download movies or share online data eight times faster than current technology allows.

The chip set can move data at 160Gbit/sec. by representing information as light pulses instead of electrons and could be used for both corporate and consumer applications as soon as 2010, IBM said.

IBM said that the new optical chipset, only one-fifteenth the size of a dime, can be manufactured with high-volume techniques and so could result in low-cost products. They could be integrated into printed circuit boards for PCs or set-top boxes.


Wow. My dial up will really rock!

 

[tfinch2]

:thumbsup:

 

[rivan]

Sweet.

 

[us3rnotfound]

alright

 

[spidey07]

Not surprised OC768 has been out for a while. Advancements are normally by a factor of 4 so OC-2496 would eventually become a reality.

The cost of optics always goes down and the speed always goes up. It follows moore's law pretty closely.

 

[FoBoT]

how do the "light pulses" get from the transmitting chip to the recieving chip?

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
how do the "light pulses" get from the transmitting chip to the recieving chip?

Fiber optic cable?

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: tfinch2

Originally posted by: FoBoT
how do the "light pulses" get from the transmitting chip to the recieving chip?

Fiber optic cable?

nuts, i don't think i have any of that, no fast internet for me

 

[jhayx7]

But the downloads will still be bottleneck'd by the hard drive speed.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
how do the "light pulses" get from the transmitting chip to the recieving chip?

Fiber optic cable or some other light/laser interface. That's what normally holds this technology back - the transition from light to electricity...the "optics" as they are called.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: FoBoT
how do the "light pulses" get from the transmitting chip to the recieving chip?

Fiber optic cable or some other light/laser interface. That's what normally holds this technology back - the transition from light to electricity...the "optics" as they are called.

right, so unless you live someplace that some large $$ company will run fiber to , then this news is useless


<yawn>

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: jhayx7
But the downloads will still be bottleneck'd by the hard drive speed.

This type of stuff is for supercomputing. It won't trickle into your home PC, if ever, for quite some time.

 

[Rumpltzer]

Intel made a very similar announcement last fall: Link

At some point both teams will need to convert the photons back into electrons, and I'm interested in seeing how they plan to do this in such wide bandwidth and on such a small scale. The current state-of-the-art in wafer- and die-level integration is just way too massive to bond the compound seiconductor (InP and GaAs) components to the silicon parts while trying to create such small chips...

I'll look for the conference proceedings at the end of the month. Should be interesting.

 

[ultimatebob]

So... who's taking bets as to when the RIAA and MPAA sue IBM and try to outlaw these things?

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: tfinch2

Originally posted by: jhayx7
But the downloads will still be bottleneck'd by the hard drive speed.

This type of stuff is for supercomputing. It won't trickle into your home PC, if ever, for quite some time.

Oh come on!!! 2010 is long enough!! They can do it, have some faith!