Using Lasers to Speed Computer Data

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "The start-up Lightfleet has developed an unusual way to use lasers to speed the flow of data inside a computer, hoping to break a bottleneck that can hamper machines using many microprocessors, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company plans to sell servers it predicts will be much more efficient than existing systems in tackling tough computing problems. Tasks could include automatically recognizing a face in a video image or sifting through billions of financial transactions for signs of illegal activity. These machines will attempt to sidestep some of the problems associated with parallel computation by ensuring all processors are connected, all the time."

Comments

IPOL?

[jimstapleton]

IP over Laser, using a mirror as a hub? Interesting concept...

Messages from each processor, or any combination of them, are simultaneously sent to all the other microprocessors. Each receiver only picks out the messages intended for it, because of special addressing information sent with the light beams.

Yes, I know, it's not actually IP, but that's what it makes me think of.

Passive Star Networking

[PSaltyDS]

The US Navy used to do networking over a Codenoll Passive Star network. The modified 10Base-FL NICs sent transmit pulses to passive hub, which optically coupled all the rcv/xmt ports together in what was essentially a fused glass blob. Codenoll calls it 10Base-FP.

The useful thing about it was being completely unpowered. The passive hub could stuffed into/behind anything where the fiber could reach it and there was no configuration, power, management, etc. Of course, those were also its weakness: no configuration, management, etc. A lot of these were installed in the early 90's, but I don't think the Navy uses them any more.

Two words

[gr8_phk]

Snake Oil. Actually, they don't even have a product yet. What's the term for raising money for an idea that will never fly?