Posted on Monday, September 18 2006 @ 17:09 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Intel and the University of California have developed a silicon-based chip that uses laser beams to send data between chips.
Researchers plan to announce on Monday that they have created a silicon-based chip that can produce laser beams. The advance will make it possible to use laser light rather than wires to send data between chips, removing the most significant bottleneck in computer design.
As a result, chipmakers may be able to put the high-speed data communications industry on the same curve of increased processing speed and diminishing costs--the phenomenon known as Moore's law--that has driven the computer industry for the last four decades.
The development is a result of research at Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Commercializing the new technology may not happen before the end of the decade, but the prospect of being able to place hundreds or thousands of data-carrying light beams on standard industry chips is certain to shake up both the communications and computer industries.
More details at
CNET.
