back to article Intel demos inexpensive 100Gb/sec silicon photonics chip

Intel has demoed what it says it "believes" is the world's only silicon photonics module that uses a hybrid silicon laser – a breakthrough that should allow such advances as vastly improved system-to-system interconnects in the data center. The demo of the 100Gb/sec module was presented via a video during Intel CTO Justin …

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  1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

    We can make those photons go faster

    The only way you can do that is to change the medium they go through. And then there's this trivial limit called "c" - known to many as the speed of light in a vacuum.

    1. defiler

      But as was mentioned on The Reg...

      Just the other day it was reported that the weak point of the fibre is the fibre itself. Get rid of that and use a hollow tube, and you're looking at upping signal speeds by 40% or something...

      However, I suspect they really meant turning them on and off faster. Nice to know that either could be done though. And more colours. And more cables in parallel.

      The only remaining question is will it blend / play Crysis / carry all the porn blah blah that everyone always asks...

    2. mIRCat
      Boffin

      "And then there's this trivial limit called "c" "

      Looks like someone already found the bottleneck.

      Boffin because I'm tired of those blasted laws of physics holding us back.

  2. Bill Neal

    Nice

    While we may have to wait a long time for exascale computing, its nice to know the network will be ready.

  3. Ian Michael Gumby
    Thumb Up

    Forget computing...

    Think of real world use cases!

    TELEVISION!

    Now your cable company can stream either more carp at you or maybe, just maybe that super high 4HD images.

    That is to say that this technology can now be used to restart the TV and Video/Movie tech industry too.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Henry Gilbey Rocks.

      Yes! More fishing programmes FTW!

  4. E 2

    I hope this tech quickly becomes a standard as cheap as gigabit ethernet - the process to fab it seems amenable.

    Sadly I expect it will be withheld at the high end of the market, kept very expensive.

    100Gb/s office and home networking would be game changing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      100Gbps Ethernet would be nice

      At our workplace we were looking at 10GbE networking for a couple of machines. We may yet go that way, since the switches we have support it, and on a couple of our machines, it'll make sense. (Think OpenStack Swift Proxies, Rados Gateway, etc.)

      The cheapest card we can get though is nearly AU$600.

      If this technology moves ahead, I could see us not bothering with 10GbE and using 100GbE instead.

  5. Denarius
    Trollface

    interesting

    Intel were trying for cheap fibre NICs initially. Wanted to get 100Gb to desktop for the wired house with a price around $30. Maybe they succeeded. Now if there was only a network capable of using this end speed outside of South Korea.

    More 3D movies to be streamed around the house to induce nausea and headaches, and thats before you finish watching the wretched lack of plot ? The eventual holographic videa phone or broadcast ? Smoke signals when you burn the smart TV after realising that with 5000 HD channels all are reruns of 1960s or worse crap ?

  6. Herby

    Tight bits!

    They will only be (on average) a little less than 3 mm apart. That's pretty close.

    Big problem is the packets "in transit". You go a bit of distance and a while packet is in the pipe. It gets complicated to handle it. Lots of buffers to be sure.

    So it boils down to "Got Memory?"

  7. Nigel 11

    So it boils down to "Got Memory?"

    Cue another mention of memristors?

    Just when software is getting a bit stale, the world of hardware is starting to get very interesting all over again.

    Should I be buying HP and Intel stock?

  8. Frumious Bandersnatch

    We can make those photons go faster

    Oi you lazy photons... quit your lollygagging!

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