IBM Optical Chip Zips Huge Files Using Little Power

An anonymous reader wrote to mention that IBM has unveiled a new prototype chip that can transmit data at up to 8 TB/sec, or about 5,000 high-def video streams. While this might not be entirely amazing, the fact that they did it using the same amount of juice required to light a 100-watt lightbulb, is. "The resulting total bi-directional data transfer rate is 300 Gb/s, nearly doubling the performance of a version IBM introduced last year. Compared to current commercial optical modules the transceiver provides 10-fold greater bandwidth in 1/10 the volume while consuming comparable power, IBM said."

Comments

Re:What's with the summary?

[UncleTogie]

A hundred watts, that's all good and well, but what does it have to do with zipping huge files? Or am I reading impaired?

My bet is on someone using the word "zip" somewhat like Ballmer used "squirt", i.e., to send quickly...