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IBM Discovery May Lead To Exascale Supercomputers
alphadogg writes "IBM researchers have made a breakthrough in using pulses of light to accelerate data transfer between chips, something they say could boost the performance of supercomputers by more than a thousand times. The new technology, called CMOS Integrated Silicon Nanophotonics, integrates electrical and optical modules on a single piece of silicon, allowing electrical signals created at the transistor level to be converted into pulses of light that allow chips to communicate at faster speeds, said Will Green, silicon photonics research scientist at IBM. The technology could lead to massive advances in the power of supercomputers, according to IBM."
Interesting, perhaps in our lifetime we'll see it make its way to the desktop... It'll be sorely needed by then to run Windows 2030 comfortably, until of course, the malware takes hold.
...that the metal connections between individual components would not be fast enough.
I only wonder how long before this sort of technology makes its way to the consumer market, if only for show. Of course I can't see a use for an exascale databus on the mobo anytime soon.
IBM may be patent-happy, but it's only reasonable to protect their "inventions". There's a huge difference between a patent troll who buys patents solely for litigation purposes, and IBM, who has been among the leading tech innovators for decades, defending their investments using the legal system. We may not love the current state of affairs for patents, but it's important to distinguish between bottom feeders out for a dirty buck and successful entities making use of their R&D department.
I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
Well, electricity does travel slightly slower than light (physical electrons, which have mass, do move, although not from one end of the wire to the other). However, I suspect what they're after is improved switching speed. High frequency photons can switch on & off more sharply (i.e. in less time) than electrons in a typical electrical flow.