Intel Researchers Demonstrate 40Gbps Optical Chips

scott3778 writes "Intel Researchers announced they have successfully demonstrated a 40Gbps optical chip, an accomplishment the company says will yield cheaper photonic integrated circuits. 'chip makers have shown a keen interest in photonic integrated circuits (PICs) over the past few years because of their ability to provide a cost-effective solution for optical communication and future optical interconnects in computing industry. There are obstacles, though: One of the key components needed for silicon PICs is the very high-speed silicon optical modulator, which is used to encode data on optical beam.'"

Comments

Excited

[Szeraax]

Oh, oh. I'll take 5!

Silicon!

[the_kanzure]

There are obstacles, though: One of the key components needed for silicon PICs is the very high-speed silicon optical modulator, which is used to encode data on optical beam.

* Historical overview of silicon crystal pulling [pdf]
* Sam's Laser FAQ

Catalyzing development. (hopefully) :)
- Does anybody have links or papers re: manufacturing of fiber optics or very small optical beams? Would be great to have.

They need to give one of these for this lady...

[Anonymous Coward]

Now that's something Sigbritt Löthberg (http://slashdot.org/articles/07/07/12/1236231.sht ml) needs to install on her computer to take advantage of her 40GBps internet link!

Re:They need to give one of these for this lady...

[Token_Internet_Girl]

Sigbritt Löthberg was the envy of all the retirement home, as she consistently utilized the world's fastest internet connection to outbid everyone on Ebay.

PICs?

[Anonymous Coward]

PICs? Hasn't this acronym been used before?

Re:PICs?

[dextromulous]

PICs? Hasn't this acronym been used before?

Sure, it has been used a few times. there are only so many TLAs, you know. Much less than there are IPv4 addresses, and we seem to be running out of those as well.

Re:PICs?

[Edzor]

bah why did the submitter have to explain the acronym (dont give me that "for clarity crap"), think about all the jokes which could of come from the confusion!

  "PICs use optical integrated circuits now? woah, so much for just running my toaster!!"

  ok thats a bad example but you get the picture.

  more multiple meanings for acronyms in the tech industry is just what we need!

Re:PICs?

[iamdrscience]

Yes, but there are only so many initialisms available, they overlap regularly. My favorite one is POS, either "Point of Sale" or "Piece of Shit". I loved calling referring to the cash registers at my last job as POS systems because they were both.

Re:PICs?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it has?

Re:PICs?

[sacrilicious]

there are only so many TLAs, you know

Yeah, but how many? It's like askin' the square root of a million... no none will ever know.

Re:PICs?

[Anonymous Coward]

ISTR that if we assume that most TLAs consist of the 26 ASCII letters (case-insensitive), and therefore there are 26^3=17576 TLAs. However, according to
http://www.internetworldstats.com/blog.htm, there are currently 1,173,109,925 internet users. Clearly, there are not enough TLAs to go around, and so I propose TLAv2. TLAv2 will increase the number of available TLAs to 8031810176; this is almost seven times the number of people currently using the internet!

These fancy new seven-letter three letter acronyms (FNSLTLAs) also appeal because those using them will be able to spell out such phrases as DEDBEEF and PATRIOT (whoops, I think that one may already be taken). This, in addition to the easy availability of addresses (IANA will be selling a 26-address block, for example BOOBIE{A through Z}, for less than the price of a single TLAv1 address)

Re:Obligatory comment

[Anonymous Coward]

To use these new chips you must first realize that they don't run the Linux - They are the Linux.

40 Gbps optical chip

[morgan_greywolf]

Can you imagine a Beowu....

oh, never mind.

Ooh had enough, eh?

[paperdiesel]

I hope that these new PIC Chips fare a bit better than the last ones. They must be like the tech version of the Black Knight who Always Triumphs! Slashdot effortlessly cut the limbs off of the old PIC Chips, but the PICs are not done! Those smoldering, dead servers were just flesh wounds!

Re:Ooh had enough, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

I finally understand that joke. It wasn't clear from the context in the movie, since the Black Knight wasn't one of the "good guys". Traditionally, only the good guys get up from major "flesh wounds" through sheer determination.

Re:Obligatory comment

[stonedcat]

Plus will it fit my AM2 processor slot?

Cool, but ho hum in the year 2075

[caywen]

Definitely sounds like a good bet for getting us past Moore's Law after 2065. I think electron spin technology will carry us from 2050-2060, and quantum spooky effect chips will take us to 2075, but man, after that we're just screwed without this technology. Until 2065, though, we're just gonna have to live with million core chips suspended in a bathtub of liquid nitrogen. As long as it's cost effective!

high-speed silicon optical modulator

[iminplaya]

Would spinning one those color wheels they use at the discos at 10,000rpm work?

Re:high-speed silicon optical modulator

[iminplaya]

Man! I need a way to defeat redirects. Alright try this. #$%#$%*&#$!!!Completely ruins the effect.

Re:high-speed silicon optical modulator

[AnyoneEB]

Privoxy will rewrite the HTTP referrer of your requests. I think it uses the root of the server by default. Personally, I have stopped using it because Firefox with extensions is better/easier for adblocking... it seems like there should be a Firefox extension for referrer changes. Anyone know of one that I am missing?

Re:high-speed silicon optical modulator

[DrSkwid]

Webdeveloper Extension ... Disable ... Disable Meta Redirects

Re:high-speed silicon optical modulator

[ZwJGR]

http://refspoof.mozdev.org/

Re:high-speed silicon optical modulator

[AnyoneEB]

Thank you. I installed it.

Oblig. star trek...

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

COOL

Isolinear chips!

Heat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone know how such a chip's heat compares with a mainstream CPU? I know it's not a fair comparison since the opti-chip is a prototype, but i'm interested anyway.

Re:PICs

[jedimark]

At least one (sad) person though that was funny and relevant..

I wish these companies would stop pinching trademarks when they create stupid acronyms.. If it's leads to 40ghz chips and technology, they should put a little more thought into a funkier ground-breaking name for their concept..

Laser modulator nothing new

[Anonymous Coward]

The purpose of a laser modulator is to convert an electrical data stream into an optical data stream for transmission along an optical fiber. These have existed for quite some time, and already exist for 40Gbps apps. Intel's contribution is doing it in Si. I doubt this technology is going to translate into anything more general in the near future.

O-E converter

[Ethanol-fueled]

What about the electro-optical conversions? Won't they slow things down a bit in a real-world situation?

Re:O-E converter

[imgod2u]

This is actually the main problem that is solved with this solution. Traditionally, electro-optical conversion was done using discrete components. This consumed a great deal of power and also added the extra restriction that a separate, optical modulator had to be added along with the central electronic chip. It also meant that the electronic chip had to somehow send a very fast electrical signal (and all the attenuation that would occur to it) to the optical module.

The optical IC they came up with isn't optical entirely. The internal logic is still electrical but they've managed to do a silicon-level electro-optical converter and directly send the optical signal out (I'm guessing through a microlens). This isn't likely to make internal logic (the next Pentium...wait they don't use that name anymore) calculate faster, but it'll be interesting to see this used as a RAM interface, for instance, or for multi-processor interconnect.

Re:O-E converter

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

The part that's difficult is the speed divide between electronics and optics. Not to mention the OOK scheme used is incredibly broadband (perfect square waves theoretically have infinite odd harmonics). Due to finite rise/fall times, the number of harmonics you need to reproduce the waveform is non-infinite, but still pretty large to be a PITA. Eg. a 2.4GHz signal = 2.4GHz, 7.2GHz, 12GHz, 16.8GHz, etc.
It's pretty difficult to make a lot of microwave components (circulators, etc.) be this broadband!

Laser Modulator..

[JimiSpier]

Wasn't Marvin the Martian and Bugs Bunny unable to develop a working prototype.. Without having to blow up a planet.. :p

This sucks for modding

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean how the hell am I gonna overclock light?

Re:This sucks for modding

[seanadams.com]

I mean how the hell am I gonna overclock light?

Immerse it in lead and then run it on Xrays. Duh.

Re:This sucks for modding

[tygerstripes]

And now the Modders and Overclockers are set to polarise into two distinct communities - those who try to improve performance by reducing light-leakage, and those who prettify the setup by mounting a spinning disco-ball in their many-windowed case and grinding a refractive biohazard symbol into the top of their CPU...

Re:This sucks for modding

[camperdave]

Don't forget the group that will ever so carefully remove the opaque plastic body surrounding their optical chips so that they can encase them in acrylic and watch the processing.

Sorry..

[UK Boz]

The PIC acronym is already taken but they definitely don't do 40gHz!

Re:Sorry..

[kingpin2k]

Pilot In Command?

Insensitive

[furbearntrout]

I'm running Debian, you insensitive clod!

Re:Insensitive

[Anonymous Coward]

I never considered debian anything more than a solid base to keep things organized and centered, i would never consider using it for a server but thats for other reasons having to do with management and some RH specific features in Suse and RHEL

Not for general-purpose computing

[supergumby]

People in the communications business know not to bet against electronics. Optics are very useful for long distance communications, but for several reasons the technology in the linked article will not make a new CPU nor will it be a chip-to-chip interconnect.

This technology will be useful for integrating lasers into signal-processing chips.

Also, would the editors kindly link to the original Intel post? The Gearlog story adds absolutely nothing.

Re:I for one...

[Nullav]

PICs or it didn't happen.

Are totally optical chips possible?

[master_p]

The current crop of optical chips are a mix of electron & photon devices. I wonder if totally optical chips could be possible. Is that viable? or desirable?

Only for big cities.

[Anonymous Coward]

They use optic fibers to connect big cities!!!

Lisboa - Madrid - Barcelona - Paris - London - Bruseles - Bonn - Berlin - Moscow - Beijing - Pekin - Hong Kong.

Avg Speed: 1,000,000 TeraBytes/s.

Re:I for one...

[BosstonesOwn]

PICs ! PICs !!!! Won't some one thing of the children !