A new milestone has been achieved by Intel in micro chip technology; recently Intel has unveiled the prototype of newly developed silicon photonics microprocessor chip with which it will become possible to move data at the rate of 50Gbps, whereas 6.25Gbps is enough to send an entire HD (720p) movie in one second.
Courtesy: Intel
A transmitter chip with 4 laser beams, light them into an optical modulator (highlighted with yellow line in figure) where data is encoded onto beams at 12.5Gbps – translating electric signals into light at different wavelengths – combined and sent over as a single through optical fiber at a combined rate of 50GBps. At the opposite end, receiver module (highlighted with yellow line in figure) after receiving reverses the process that first separating the beams and then converting the data back to electrical signals. Intel declared this photonics chip as a ‘concept vehicle’ for lot of other innovations.
With this breakthrough it is possible to transmit data across large distances at a constant speeds unlike the conventional copper wires based on electron transmission which are limited by bandwidth and distance.
The team working on memory technology is lagging way behind because with present memory system this photonics chip is of no significant use, they better hurry to make this high speed computing possible. Let us hope for the best!
Very interesting article, thanks. Keep up the good work.