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Article

Title: IBM Chips Will Use Light to Send Data

Author: Abate, Tom Article Type: Product Analysis
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, pC1(2) Publication Date: Mar 26, 2007
URL of Publication: http://www.sfgate.com

IBM's prototype chips to be announced soon are transceivers, or devices that can send and receive data. The IBM chips can send large quantities of data by beaming light pulses through plastic fibers, in an approach that uses much less energy than the pushing of streamed electrons through copper wires. IBM VP and technologist Bernard Meyerson said that within a few years, these light-based transceiver chips could be used to transmit large data volumes in critical chokepoints on the Internet or large computer networks. The technology could help eliminate speed-bumps that can result in slower transmission. In today's chips, large amounts of electricity are needed to push electrons, which in turn creates heat that has to be eliminated in data centers through energy-intensive air conditioning. Much less energy is required to send light pulses through clear filaments of glass or plastic, and the IBM prototype transceivers can transmit 160GBs of data each second, but they only use a quantity of power that it would take for the sort of safety light people plug in to the hallway or bathroom at night. Analyst Lawrence Gasman of Communications Industry Researchers has said that, if IBM can make the transceiver chips in volume, they would become the enabling technology for a huge cost reduction in chokepoint functions where large quantities of data have to be transmitted.

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