IBM Optical Chip Moves Data At 1Tbps

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IBM Optical Chip Moves Data At 1Tbps

Posted by timothy on Thursday March 8, 2012 @05:10AM from the whooomph-there-it-was dept.

snydeq writes "IBM researchers have developed a prototype optical chip that can transfer data at 1Tbps, the equivalent of downloading 500 high-definition movies, using light pulses, the company said Thursday. The chip, called Holey Optochip, is a parallel optical transceiver consisting of both a transmitter and a receiver, and is designed to handle the large amount of data created and transmitted over corporate and consumer networks as a result of new applications and services. It is expected to power future supercomputer and data center applications, an area where IBM already uses optical technology." User judgecorp links to more coverage, writing "The record was achieved because 24 holes in the chip allow direct access to lasers connected to the chip."

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Holey Optochip Batman by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-08 05:13 · Score: 5, Funny

n/m
What kind of kick-ass compression? by Splab · 2012-03-08 05:14 · Score: 3, Funny

1 terabit per second is 128 gigabyte per second - if they can fit 500 HD in 128 GB that compression is to me a much more important breakthrough...
1. Re:What kind of kick-ass compression? by Gripp · 2012-03-08 05:30 · Score: 2
  
  my guess is they were talking required streaming rates...? I doubt the author actually thinks a 1Tbps would transfer 500 blue rays in 1 second... (though, you never know..)
2. Re:What kind of kick-ass compression? by Tea-Bone+of+Brooklyn · 2012-03-08 05:32 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  They don't actually say how long it would take. Maybe it's just as cool as downloading 500 HD movies or something. The statement is sort of like "It goes 50,000 MPH, the equivalent of flying to Mars."
3. Re:What kind of kick-ass compression? by geekmux · 2012-03-08 06:11 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  They don't actually say how long it would take. Maybe it's just as cool as downloading 500 HD movies or something. The statement is sort of like "It goes 50,000 MPH, the equivalent of flying to Mars."
  Yeah, the only way it could possibly be worse is if we perhaps had "MPH", and "MPh", the latter indicating a speed 1/8th as fast, but no one would EVER pay attention to the "typo"...
4. Re:What kind of kick-ass compression? by BeardedChimp · 2012-03-08 06:44 · Score: 2
  
  I believe the actual statement is "It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs"
5. Re:What kind of kick-ass compression? by X0563511 · 2012-03-08 06:51 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  You know, the phrase actually makes sense with the context (that was never given in the movie)
  quote:
  
  The Kessel Run was an 18-parsec route used by smugglers to move glitterstim spice from Kessel to an area south of the Si'Klaata Cluster without getting caught by the Imperial ships that were guarding the movement of spice from Kessel's mines.
  It took travelers in real space around The Maw leading them to an uninhabitable—but far easier to navigate—area of space called The Pit, which was an asteroid cluster encased in a nebula arm making sensors as well as pilots go virtually blind. Thus there was a high chance that pilots, weary from the long flight through real space, would crash into an asteroid.
  So, the idea is that he took a rather large shortcut - "By moving closer to the black holes, Solo managed to cut the distance down to about 11.5 parsecs."
  
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6. Re:What kind of kick-ass compression? by PhrstBrn · 2012-03-08 09:06 · Score: 2
  
  It still doesn't make any sense given that context. Ignoring the fact that the explanation was retconed in once people pointed out that a parsec is a unit of distance, the conversation that took place.
  Ben: Is it a fast ship?
  Solo: It's the ship that did the kessel run in less than 12 parsecs! I've outrun imperial starships! She's fast enough!
  In relation to a question about a ship being fast, he responds to something about a shortcut? I don't think so, I think the writers made a mistake in their terminology.
7. Re:What kind of kick-ass compression? by narcberry · 2012-03-08 09:53 · Score: 2
  
  You're right, it's not a compliment to Solo, but instead to his ship.
  I've imagined it was more along the lines of accelerating to some speed, then back down again within a certain distance. Since top speed is meaningless in space, the real comparison would be acceleration. Kind of similar to 1 to 60 in x seconds kind of remark, only replacing time with space to still have a meaningful metric, 1 to 60 in 500 feet.
  
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Finally airline pilots can rejoice! by justforgetme · 2012-03-08 05:14 · Score: 2

All the kids will be running around with their stupid laser pointers hacking into WoW!

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I keep waiting for ... by ackthpt · 2012-03-08 05:15 · Score: 2

Flying Car
Optical Computer
Pay Increase
Not a chance on all three

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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
1. Re:I keep waiting for ... by Zuriel · 2012-03-08 05:32 · Score: 2
  
  I keep hearing mention of the flying car, and my response is always the same: have you *seen* how people drive? Do you want these people in the air?
2. Re:I keep waiting for ... by jedidiah · 2012-03-08 06:22 · Score: 2
  
  We already have driverless cars.
  That's why a lot of people aren't too keen on flying cars.
  
  --
  A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
3. Re:I keep waiting for ... by jedidiah · 2012-03-08 06:24 · Score: 2
  
  Never underestimate the ability of a suburbanite to mange to consume all available space. They constitute swarms in numbers far smaller than 12.
  
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  A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Re:Uploads? by masternerdguy · 2012-03-08 05:21 · Score: 4, Funny

10 years in jail I imagine. But think of how fast you could pirate things with the advances in technology when you get out!

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640Gbps by circletimessquare · 2012-03-08 05:24 · Score: 4, Funny

ought to be enough for anybody.

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The thud you heard by Opportunist · 2012-03-08 05:31 · Score: 2

was Chris Dodd dropping after fainting.

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alignment by phriedom · 2012-03-08 05:31 · Score: 4, Insightful

How would you like to be the technician who had to align 24 photodiodes and 24 lasers to 48 optical fibers on a 5mm x 5mm die. They should have a picture of that heroic individual in the press release. But no, the PR people are just making up crap about transfer rates.

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1. Re:alignment by crgrace · 2012-03-08 05:49 · Score: 2
  
  I hope you're being sarcastic. The lasers, diodes and through-silicon vias are aligned using lithography. That heroic individual is a guy sitting in front of a workstation drinking Mountain Dew.
2. Re:alignment by phriedom · 2012-03-08 08:31 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Having read the much, much better IBM press release, I see now that the arrays of TX and RX diodes are assembled to the mother chip while it is still in wafer, which would imply automation, and as you said alignment by lithography. Then there is this bit: "The Holey Optochips are designed for direct coupling to a standard 48-channel multimode fiber array through an efficient microlens optical system that can be assembled with conventional high-volume packaging tools." So again, automated, not manual. I simply had no idea there was such a thing as a standard 48-channel multimode fiber array, like they sell them at Frye's or something. In any case, IBM seems to be trying to make it clear that this isn't some esoteric lab experiment like I assumed it was, but uses existing technology that could be scaled into production. Now my question is: what did they use to feed data to 24 40-something Gigabit channels? I'm guessing they loopback the optical side, but that is just a guess, maybe they have 24 optical sources and loopback the electrical side. I wish they had a picture of the whole setup.
  
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Re:Measuring in HD movies? by ackthpt · 2012-03-08 05:32 · Score: 2

So they consider a 2 Mbps stream to be HD?
Had to cut corners somewhere -- the bill from AT&T would have bankrupted them.

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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Re:Measuring in HD movies? by MyLongNickName · 2012-03-08 05:32 · Score: 4, Informative

Pssst. 1/500 of 1Tb/s is 2Gb/s not 2Mb/s. I think they are saying you can download 500 movies in 1 second, not the equivilent of streaming continually at 1Tb/s. 1Tb/s just blows my mind.

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Re:1 Tbps by GameboyRMH · 2012-03-08 05:33 · Score: 3, Informative

As of March 2012 it's about 0.00037 LoCs/sec

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Re:Measuring in HD movies? by Intrepid+imaginaut · 2012-03-08 05:48 · Score: 3, Funny

Great news, they've gotten my porn collection transfer time metric down to three hours fourteen minutes, that's a new record.
Re:Equivalent... by Dishevel · 2012-03-08 05:57 · Score: 2

You are correct sir.
Piracy is all about self entitled pricks. (and some people who are left out because it is not made available.)
Copyright is also about self entitled pricks.
Remember Copyright is a made up right that was invented to promote more copyrightable works specifically to enrich the public domain.
We gave them some protection and they enrich the public domain.
Of course the self entitled pricks now believe nothing should ever enter the public domain but they should still get their made up protections.
I say fuck all self entitled pricks. And their grandchildren.

--
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3800 pounds of 3.5in floppy discs every second by Edward+Nardella · 2012-03-08 06:03 · Score: 2

There, that should be an easy comparison.

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Re:Uploads? by dsvilko · 2012-03-08 06:05 · Score: 2

Is that 10 jail-years per second?
here's the press release by crgrace · 2012-03-08 06:05 · Score: 4, Informative

The linked article sucks. Here it is straight from the horse's mouth.
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/37095.wss
Re:If Lightfleet wasn't already dead by crgrace · 2012-03-08 06:17 · Score: 2

The communication channel in the article is very, very different from the single mode fiber 400 Gbps link you give. You can't multiply them together.
The chip in the article is very, very short range and doesn't use heavy-duty signal processing.
The long-distance links are incredibly power-hungry and use a lot of expensive and challenging signal processing.
And which chip had the older, clunkier technology? They use very different technology.
Re:Uploads? by Sqr(twg) · 2012-03-08 06:36 · Score: 3, Funny

Yes, or simply 315 569 260 jails.
Re:YIKES! by networkBoy · 2012-03-08 07:07 · Score: 2

no because it would not be used in a machine with disks.
This would be used to link two carrier class routers together. The aggregate traffic on both routers would likely be enough to start using this level of bandwidth.
Also, likely to be used in transoceanic trunks if they can Tx far enough.
-nB

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