Intel sets record breakthrough with 40Gbps modulators

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By Steve Ragan Jul 25, 2007, 15:50 GMT

In a recent blog post, the Intel research team announced the new milestone speeds and gave a brief overview of the new technology. Ansheng Liu said in an Intel blog post that the new breakthrough in Silicon Photonics research at the Photonics Technology Lab of Intel is, “a laser modulator that encodes optical data at 40 billion bits per second.”The modulator is made of silicon, and encodes data onto a beam of light at the rate of 40Gbps (gigabits per second). “As you may know, a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) could provide a cost-effective solution for optical communication and future optical interconnects in computing industry,” Liu said on the Intel blog. “PICs on silicon platforms have attracted particular interest because of silicon’s low cost and high volume manufacturability.”The blog post goes on to explain that the new modulator, when combined with twenty-five hybrid silicon lasers on a single chip, opens the door to speeds far greater than what was announced recently, speeds of up to 1Tbps. The technology is sure to be a hit because of the use of fiber optics. Fiber carries more bandwidth and can carry data further than copper, which is currently used today. The technology will also play a role in “green” technologies as fiber reduces the energy used, and the heat displaced by resistance.Starting in 2004, Intel released the 1Gbps modulator, and then a 10Gbps model. “In January 2007, we designed and fabricated a new type of silicon optical modulator scalable to >>10 Gbps and demonstrated data transmission at 30 Gbps.” Liu said. There is no word of when there will be commercial use for the new 40Gpbs technology from Intel only that it several years away.The full post with detailed research notes is located on the Intel blog.
http://blogs.intel.com/research/2007/07/40g_modulator.html

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WarrensnJul 25th, 2007 - 18:57:35

Cool. Now I'll be able to download a HD dvd in 1.2 sec instead of the hideously slow 2.8 sec of the last generation :)

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