IBM Debuts Optical Transceiver Chipset

IBM debuted a new optical transceiver chipset today that researchers within the company promise will allow users to download data eight times faster than current technology. IBM cited the rising demand for digital media such as movies as the driving force behind the new technology. "IBM says it can meet that need, building its new chipset by making an optical transceiver with standard CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technology, and combining that with optical components crafted from exotic materials such as indium phosphide and gallium arsenide. The resulting package is just 3.25mm by 5.25mm in size, small enough to be integrated onto a printed circuit board."

Comments

Re:Investment and profit

[HomelessInLaJolla]

DARPA does not finance things for the fun of it That's been my point: since DARPA is financed by taxpayer dollars, what are the taxpayers getting out of it?

But, no, I understand. It's easy to lose track of the people putting in the long hard hours at work to pay the taxes just so someone else can make three times as much working on the tax funded project. The path the money takes is just a little too complex for the majority of the Slashdot readership (and mods).

Maybe I was giving everyone more credit than they actually deserved. Perhaps I'll have to spell it out in preschool letter tiles for most people to understand.