IBM Slows the Speed of Light

dptalia writes "According to an article on ZDNet, IBM has come up with a way to slow light to 1/300 of its normal speed. While this has been done in laboratories before, IBM has found out how to do this using standard materials, which opens the possibility of mass production. This means that the dream of having optical based CPUs may be closer than previously thought." From the article: "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 photons can replace electrons inside computers. A paper providing details on the chip will run in Nature on Wednesday."

Comments

I'd rather they not

[alta]

I mean, if I get an optical processor, I don't want it to run at 1/300th the speed of light. I want FULL speed. Are they planning on selling 1/200th as an upgrade, until one day we top off at 1/1th the speed of light like we have at around 3.8GHz?

Unicorns Will Be Real!!

[open_myeyes]

Unicorns and other 'mythical' creatures are almost sure to be 'created' via genetic engineering sooner or later. The potential revenue for mythological (vs. jurassic) park is too great and the ethical considerations pose no real roadblock, cloning and genetic alteration of various animals having already been accepted in many nations of the world.

A faster than light unicorn, though--now that would really turn heads.

Furthermore, I for one welcome our new FTL Unicorn overlords.

Re:One question

[bdcrazy]

The speed of dark is faster. You can see light coming at you. The problem is seeing the dark coming.

The secret to how they did it

[Ethelred Unraed]

They got Einstein stone drunk.

Relatively speaking.

Cheers,

Ethelred