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Engineers Report Breakthrough in Laser Beam Tech

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the really-fast-morse-code dept.

petralynn writes to tell us the New York Times is reporting that Stanford engineers have discovered a method to modulate a beam of laser light up to 100 billion times a second. The new technology apparently uses materials that are already in wide use throughout the semiconductor industry. From the article: "The vision here is that, with the much stronger physics, we can imagine large numbers - hundreds or even thousands - of optical connections off of chips," said David A.B. Miller, director of the Solid State and Photonics Laboratory at Stanford University. "Those large numbers could get rid of the bottlenecks of wiring, bottlenecks that are quite evident today and are one of the reasons the clock speeds on your desktop computer have not really been going up much in recent years."

13 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. WTF is Standford University? by winkydink · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is that the one across the bay from Berkly?

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

    1. Re:WTF is Standford University? by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 4, Funny

      And, more importantly, does Standford's football team suck as much as Stanford's?

      --
      Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
    2. Re:WTF is Standford University? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's the West Coast's answer to Harfurd.

  2. Modulating Laser... by mcsestretch · · Score: 4, Funny

    But will it pop a huge jiffy-pop container in my professor's house by shooting it from a plane?

  3. All I wanted... by parasonic · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...was chips with frickin' laser beams!

    1. Re:All I wanted... by Admiral+Ackbar+8 · · Score: 2, Funny

      [holds pinky up to mouth] 100 billion modulations!

  4. Who?? by Maradine · · Score: 5, Funny
    petralynn writes to tell us the New York Times is reporting that Standford engineers. . .

    That's awesome. I can't wait for Hraverd and Yalle to catch up.

    --

    trustedworlds.net - gaming, security, and the gunk that lives in between

  5. Obligatory Reference by Stibidor · · Score: 2, Funny

    So can they attach them to sharks' heads yet?

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    http://nerdfortress.com/
  6. Re:More informative article: by fishybell · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, that link is a little better. I recommend this one instead, since it has a coherent summary and has numerous comments from industry analysts.

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    ><));>
  7. Re:I can't wait until Intel makes a chip with it by hcob$ · · Score: 2, Funny
    It'll probably put out as much heat an light as the sun.


    At least then you'll never need to get up to get rid of that monitor tan and you can fix a grilled cheese sammich at the same time!

    BRRRRRRRRiiiiilliant!!
    --
    Cliff Claven
    K.E.G. Party Chairman
    Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
  8. Genetic engineers wanted... by jpellino · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...to come up with a frickin' shark that can keep up wih these new lasers.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  9. Re:More informative article: by JJman · · Score: 2, Funny

    What? You hadn't already read the article in IEEE Spectrum?
    What kind of a geek are you?

  10. Re:I'm still betting on qubits by Heembo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Mommy, can I have $25,000 to buy the new 10k Ghz Dell Diamond Dimension pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?

    --
    Horns are really just a broken halo.