Almost a year ago IBM put $3 billion into research on developing and enhancing their existing photonics technology and putting it onto chips. The Register has heard of their recent success in creating an integrated silicon photonics transceiver chip with multiplexed wavelengths, allowing multiple signals to be sent simultaneously without interference allowing the incredibly high bandwidth. The example given to demonstrate what 100Gbps means is downloading an HD movie in 2 seconds, not too shabby at all. The demonstration model exists, a big first step in photonic technology but we won't see it mass produced for a while yet. This is a good first step in finally getting rid of copper and moving on to a new medium for data transfer.
"IBM last month claimed a breakthrough in photonics – the practice of using light pulses rather than electrons to quickly send signals in chips."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Carbon-60 and graphene for vertical transistors @ Nanotechweb
- Top 10 Linux and Android Hacker SBCs of 2015 @ Linux.com
- The Words That Indicate Malicious Domain URLs @ Slashdot
- Microsoft finally finishes its PowerPC emulator @ The Register
- Hackers serve password manager LastPass a slice of irony @ The Inquirer
- Prevent Failed Prints With A Filament Speed Sensor @ Hack a Day
