Future of Computing
So I was reading on Slashdot today:
Then I thought for a second ... wait ... Freescale ... Intel behind on technology ... could this be a big break for Apple technology. Then I read on the link to the oritinal artical that:
Sounds very interesting. Any thoughts?
Quote:
ThinSkin writes "Photon processors that transmit data via light, not electrons, are slated to enter production in mid-2006, ExtremeTech reports. Headed by a UCLA professor and a Nobel Prize winner, startup Luxtera claims that its optical modulator clocks in at 10-GHz, tens times that of Intel's optical modulator researchers talked about last year. Since the optical module exists as its own entity, it will require a standard CMOS processes to integrate the optical waveguides. Luxtera has worked closely with Freescale Semiconductor to develop this technology."
ThinSkin writes "Photon processors that transmit data via light, not electrons, are slated to enter production in mid-2006, ExtremeTech reports. Headed by a UCLA professor and a Nobel Prize winner, startup Luxtera claims that its optical modulator clocks in at 10-GHz, tens times that of Intel's optical modulator researchers talked about last year. Since the optical module exists as its own entity, it will require a standard CMOS processes to integrate the optical waveguides. Luxtera has worked closely with Freescale Semiconductor to develop this technology."
Then I thought for a second ... wait ... Freescale ... Intel behind on technology ... could this be a big break for Apple technology. Then I read on the link to the oritinal artical that:
Quote:
Freescale has taped out several engineering samples of the optical technology, including a chip, one side of which includes the optical interface built in. The sample chip use a 130-nm SOI process, the same technology used to fabricate the G4 microprocessor. Part of Luxtera's job has been to develop silicon libraries, the files used to design the photonic chips in the same way other libraries serve as the blueprint for making more conventional semiconductors.
Freescale has taped out several engineering samples of the optical technology, including a chip, one side of which includes the optical interface built in. The sample chip use a 130-nm SOI process, the same technology used to fabricate the G4 microprocessor. Part of Luxtera's job has been to develop silicon libraries, the files used to design the photonic chips in the same way other libraries serve as the blueprint for making more conventional semiconductors.
Sounds very interesting. Any thoughts?
Comments
With the first implementation of this technology being a chip-to-chip bus, it could also provide better processor performance by providing a path for higher memory bandwidth. But buses aren't necessarily the bottleneck here either. Memory chip performance looks to be lagging everything else for the forseeable future.
Originally posted by Hiro
Well optical signalling through fiber-optic media is roughly 2/3 the speed of light in a vacuum, which is slower than the propagation of electrons through copper wire.
Really? I will have to check that out.
But Ben's got a point, it is interesting that it's our old friends at Freescale who are doing the work...
Originally posted by THT
Really? I will have to check that out.
Yep. The density and light limit-speed differences in various media are responsible for refraction. Think prisims, the actual speed differences even vary with wavelength. So it's actually not quite so surprising. The 2/3 number is not hard and fast, pretty much a back of the envelope starting point used for fiber-optic network designs that gets specifically hammered out once actual media and transmission wavelength decisions are made.