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Intel Boosts Optical Communication Speeds

Posted by kdawson on from the how-fast-can-you-blink dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Intel has developed a device, the Avalanche Photodetector, that senses light pulses and amplifies output signals for faster data transfer over long distances. Researchers claim this is a big advancement in the field of silicon photonics, in which silicon is used to transfer light pulses for data exchange between chips and devices. APD can detect light at higher frequencies and moves data at rates of 40Gbps, making it more sensitive and quicker than earlier photodetectors, at a tenth the cost."

5 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Intel has developed a device, the Avalanche Photodetector" is a bit of an overstatement, since these have been in use as nuclear and particle physics detectors for almost 30 years now...

  2. Given what there was before... by theM_xl · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd say the real news here is "tenth of the price". The 4 times the previous speed improvement is nice, mind you, but it's the price drop that means it's likely to find it's way to consumer-level stuff eventually.

    Also interesting is DARPA being involved (again) which seems to happen more often than our patenting overlords would like us to know.

    1. Re:Given what there was before... by Tychon · · Score: 4, Funny

      The Stargate project is finally paying off, I see.

  3. Another article here by boohaha · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's another article about it here. Interesting snippet: "Earlier this year, Sun received a US$44 million contract from DARPA to boost computing performance by enabling chip communication using lasers over silicon and to reduce power consumption by placing chips close to each other."

  4. Factual corrections by JumpingBull · · Score: 4, Informative

    First, APD's have been around for years; their vacuum cousins are called photo-multipliers.

    Second, the article states electron pairs; that should be amended to electron-hole pairs. When a photon whacks into a lattice, it ejects an electron, leaving a hole. This absence of an electron can be filled by a nearby electron, so the hole moves, rather like a hole in a crowd.

    The important parts (pointed out by other posters, also), are that:

    • Intel gets bragging rights for significant technology and fabrication advances
    • It just got way cheaper to put high speed communications on a chip or in a system
    • Intel is working on optical plumbing (waveguides) for the chip level
    • The spin-off company may become another publicly traded company
    • The technology used is incremental, and has less risks to implement

    In all, life just got more interesting; we just have to wait about five years for this to be in regular production

    --
    This is progress?