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IBM Optical Chip Zips Huge Files Using Little Power

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the zip-without-the-zap dept.

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."

6 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. So that would make it use about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    100 watts? Anybody want to check my math?

  2. Juice! by kevmatic · · Score: 5, Funny

    The same amount of juice to power a 100-watt light bulb!?

    That's like... 100 Watts!

    Unless you go compact florescent. Then its like 15watt.

    1. Re:Juice! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe it was written by one of these people:. (Or maybe I just wanted an excuse to post the link).

      "He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree"

      "The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon."

      "John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met."

    2. Re:Juice! by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

      The parent post is as off topic as an off-topic parent post.

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
  3. How much power? by l00sr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's see... how much power does it take to power a 100-Watt light bulb... hm... Well, according to Wikipedia, a 100-Watt incandescent lightbulb outputs about 1700 lumens. A quick googling reveals that the average incandescent bulb achieves a lighting efficiency of roughly 15.75 lumens per Watt. A simple calculation then yields that the power used by a 100-Watt light bulb is roughly 107.93 Watts. Q.E.D.

  4. 'Zips huge files' by malakai · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't be the only one that clicked on this expecting some sort of hardware based compression acceleration. I expected some sort of optical take on compression.

    --
    -Malakai
    A Dragon Lives in my Garage