[IP] IBM slows light, readies it for networking
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From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: November 3, 2005 1:16:46 PM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] IBM slows light, readies it for networking
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IBM slows light, readies it for networking
By Michael Kanellos
URL: <http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-5928541.html>
IBM has created a chip that can slow down light, the latest advance
in an industrywide effort to develop computers that will use only a
fraction of the energy of today's machines.
The chip, called a photonic silicon waveguide, is a piece of silicon
dotted with arrays of tiny holes. Scattered systematically by the
holes, light shown on the chip slows down to 1/300th of its ordinary
speed of 186,000 miles per second. In a computer system, slower light
pulses could carry data rapidly, but in an orderly fashion. The light
can be further slowed by applying an electric field to the waveguide.
Researchers at Harvard University and the University of California,
Berkeley, have slowed light in laboratories. IBM, though, claims that
its light-slowing device is the first to be fashioned out of fairly
standard materials, potentially paving the way toward commercial
adoption.
A number of companies and university researchers are currently
tinkering with ways to replace the electronic components inside
computers, which ferry signals with electrons, with optical
technology. Optical equipment ferries data on photons, the smallest
measure of light. Photons are far faster. More important, optical
equipment generates less heat, curbing the growing problem of heat
and power consumption.
The catch, however, is that until recently, creating optical
components has been more of an art than a science. The components
cost a lot to make and can't be cranked out in the millions like
silicon chips. Another factor: Optical parts are typically big,
unlike silicon chips, which measure only a few millimeters on a side.
Progress in blending the best of both technologies is advancing
rapidly, however. Intel has demonstrated a Raman laser fashioned from
silicon. Intel and start-up Luxtera have shown off silicon
modulators, which chop up the light from a laser so that it can
represent data.
IBM's silicon waveguide, as the name suggests, would channel light
pulses created by the laser and modulator.
When the optical conversion might start to occur is a matter of
speculation. Luxtera has said it will start to commercially produce
products in 2007. The computer industry, however, tends to move
slowly when it comes to major overhauls of computer architecture.
Several components will have to be developed before photos can
replace electrons inside computers.
A paper providing details on the chip will run in Nature on Wednesday.
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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