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Oracle Eyes Optical Links As Final Frontier of Data-Center Scaling

Posted by samzenpus on from the shine-on dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Oracle is exploring silicon photonics, an optical technology drawing widespread interest, as a potential weapon in the battle against data-center power consumption. Advances in CPU and memory design could boost efficiency dramatically over the next few years. When they do, the interconnects among components, servers and switches will effectively become the power hogs of the data center, according to Ashok Krishnamoorthy, architect and chief technologist in photonics at Oracle. Oracle isn't often associated with networking and may not even manufacture or sell the technologies it's now studying. But as a big player in computing and storage, it could benefit from fostering a future technology that helps make faster, more efficient data centers possible."

11 of 14 comments (clear)

  1. OK.... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is there a single hardware related company that doesn't have a speculative-office-of-silicon-photonics group hanging around somewhere? Why highlight Oracle?

    1. Re:OK.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Blatant Slashvertisement. I'm guessing that Dice got paid to run this story.

    2. Re:OK.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Because the average Slashdotter hasn't used products from most of the telecom vendor companies that are looking at Silicon Photonics. Silicon Photonics still doesn't have an answer to the fundamental problem that you can't create a laser on Silicon. So, there still has to be a VCSEL or something attached to the chip and that wipes out any advantage you had in using CMOS. I have a feeling more companies are going to start doing photonic integration on Indium Phosphide like Infinera, then Indium Phosphide fabrication will take off, then nobody will give a damn about Silicon Photonics.

  2. They will sell it by war4peace · · Score: 1

    If they find it feasible, they will sell it. The tech will probably be called "Oracle on Oracle... on Oracle". Like... an orgy of oracles.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    1. Re:They will sell it by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      The tech will probably be called "Oracle on Oracle... on Oracle". Like... an orgy of oracles.

      Yo Dawg, I hear you like Oracles ...

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  3. Wrong direction by Sarten-X · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Faster, more efficient data centers" are already possible. Just remove all of the Oracle products.

    --
    You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
  4. Nice Advertisement... by loony · · Score: 1

    Especially the "But as a big player in computing and storage..." bit was cute. Big player with around 5% market share in servers and half that in storage... yep, that's big...

    Peter.

  5. Silicon photonics? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

    I'm a doctor, not a USB cable. - EMH.

    --
    Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  6. Yeah, I'll put these next to my laptop fuel cells by sirwired · · Score: 1

    Wasn't Sun (the corporate predecessor of Oracle's HW division, for those with short memories) talking about this stuff like a decade ago?

    Wake me up when there's an actual product announcement.

  7. FINAL frontier??? by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    Really?

    That sounds a lot like, "Everything that can be invented, has already been invented...except our one last BIG invention."

  8. Re:Yeah, I'll put these next to my laptop fuel cel by timeOday · · Score: 1
    That's not fair - optical has definitely been trickling down from high-end long-haul applications, progressively towards campus/enterprise/residential networks and is continuing inside the data center:

    Following a September 11, 2013 press announcement of them being officially Thunderbolt certified by Intel, in late September 2013, US glass company Corning Inc. released the first range of optical Thunderbolt cables available in the Western marketplace outside of Japan, along with optical USB 3.0 cables, both under the brand name "Optical Cables".[12] The cables have the advantage of being 50% smaller in diameter and 80% lighter in weight than comparable copper Thunderbolt cables, work with both the current 10 Gbps Thunderbolt protocol and the forthcoming 20 Gbps Thunderbolt 2 protocol, so are able to work with all self-powered Thunderbolt devices (unlike copper cables, optical cables cannot provide power).[12] Being optical, the cables expand the current 3 metres (9.8 ft) maximum cable length offered by copper to a new maximum of 100 metres (330 ft), meaning peripheral Thunderbolt devices can be attached further away from their host device.

    (cite).

    From 3m to 100m! Personally I think that sounds great - it will enable truly dumb terminals fully capable of full-motion video applications.