CibbuanoSilicon nanophotonics makes the news
December 12th 2007 18:24
It's no news to me - my old friend and classmate, Will Green, is working on silicon nanophotonics at that behemoth of invention, IBM.
Yahoo news posted a quick little article about what's he's doing and what it means for the future.
What is Mr. Green up to?
Well, as you've probably noticed, computers are having a tougher time getting faster. It used to be, every 6 months, there'd be a big increase in speed, but we've seem to have hit a plateau.
Chipmakers like Intel and AMD are coming up with increasingly clever ways to shrink the electronics, and they've got some interesting tricks up their sleeves, but there are other problems.
No matter how fast the chip is, if the communication lines between chips is still painstakingly slow, there's no added benefit.
Enter silicon nanophotonics, which aims to replace the electrical wiring on a chip with light. Replace the electrons with light, and all of a sudden, you're moving at the speed of light. Right, Will? He says:
In addition to being faster, using optical transmission generally means a decrease in power requirements, which is better for operating costs as well as the environment. A win-win, eh?
Why aren't we doing this already? Er... there's still some bugs to iron out, and, at the moment, it's quite difficult to work with silicon nanophotonics, according to a presentation I saw Green give earlier this year.
Still, this is the way to the future, and it's a very exciting technology roadmap!
Yahoo news posted a quick little article about what's he's doing and what it means for the future.
What is Mr. Green up to?
Well, as you've probably noticed, computers are having a tougher time getting faster. It used to be, every 6 months, there'd be a big increase in speed, but we've seem to have hit a plateau.
Chipmakers like Intel and AMD are coming up with increasingly clever ways to shrink the electronics, and they've got some interesting tricks up their sleeves, but there are other problems.
No matter how fast the chip is, if the communication lines between chips is still painstakingly slow, there's no added benefit.
Enter silicon nanophotonics, which aims to replace the electrical wiring on a chip with light. Replace the electrons with light, and all of a sudden, you're moving at the speed of light. Right, Will? He says:
""The silicon nanophotonic effort is a high-bandwidth, low-power technology for cores to communicate," Green said.
The technical basis of this research is the same science that led to the development of optical fiber and Internet communications. Silicon nanophotonics brings similar optical communication on chips for centimeters instead of miles, Green said."
The technical basis of this research is the same science that led to the development of optical fiber and Internet communications. Silicon nanophotonics brings similar optical communication on chips for centimeters instead of miles, Green said."
In addition to being faster, using optical transmission generally means a decrease in power requirements, which is better for operating costs as well as the environment. A win-win, eh?
Why aren't we doing this already? Er... there's still some bugs to iron out, and, at the moment, it's quite difficult to work with silicon nanophotonics, according to a presentation I saw Green give earlier this year.
Still, this is the way to the future, and it's a very exciting technology roadmap!
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