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Production of Photon Processors Expected in 2006

Posted by timothy on from the enlightening dept.

ThinSkin writes "Photon processors that transmit data via light, not electrons, are slated to enter production in mid-2006, ExtremeTech reports. Headed by a UCLA professor and a Nobel Prize winner, startup Luxtera claims that its optical modulator clocks in at 10-GHz, tens times that of Intel's optical modulator researchers talked about last year. Since the optical module exists as its own entity, it will require a standard CMOS processes to integrate the optical waveguides. Luxtera has worked closely with Freescale Semiconductor to develop this technology."

7 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Uh, okay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And who gets to use these? Are these like only special coprocessors for million-dollar supercomputers? Are they going to be x86-compatible? MIPS compatible? What?

  2. Not a "Processor" by TopSpin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's high bandwidth (10Gbit/sec) small scale (130nm) modulation from CMOS to optical. This is not "processing" in the sense of optical logic.

    --
    Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
  3. Re:How long until... by ciroknight · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No offense, but we're more likely to see this kind of technology being used to make movies before video games. Hear me out.

    When newer processor technologies are developed, they're almost always deligated to server processors before they trickle down to desktop processors. (Of course, there are exceptions: MMX and its spawn, etc).
    br. I can't wait to see Pixar pick up the Apple Xserves based on an optical interconnected chip. The movies they'd makewould only get more spectacular.

    --
    "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
  4. Re:How long until... by one_get_one_free · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ..And downloading porn a million times faster. Don't forget that.

  5. Re:The Japanese... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    People with Chinese or Indian names can't possibly be Americans? They all want to "go back home"?

    Interesting.

  6. Re:How long until... by jafomatic · · Score: 2, Insightful
    No offense, but I'd rather we leverage this kinda thing in the pursuit of curing fucking diseases before we make the videogames.

    ...or the movies, whichever. Probably the movies first, since they don't need to render in real-time.

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    ::jafomatic
  7. What does this _mean_? by Alioth · · Score: 2, Insightful
    From TFA:

    Although light slows down by some degree when transmitted through an optical medium, shifting to optical-based components is still too expensive than relying solely on copper, even when factoring in the additional power, heat, and crosstalk issues.

    Is it just me or is this a really badly constructed sentence? It changes subject halfway through (from the speed of light in optical medium to the cost of copper).
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