IBM's light pulse love affair continues with tiniest nanophotonic switch

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 17th 2008 at 8:59AM

Merely months after IBM first inserted silicon nanophotonics into our memory bank, and just weeks after we drooled all over ourselves reading about its green optical link, the mega-corp has chosen St. Patrick's Day to trumpet the development of the "world's tiniest nanophotonic switch." The device, which boasts a footprint "about 100 times smaller than the cross section of a human hair," is said to be a vital part of creating an on-chip optical network. More specifically, it's bringing the gurus behind it one step closer to conjuring up multi-core CPUs that transmit data with light pulses rather than relying on electrical signals on copper wires. This particular switch would essentially divert traffic within the network, ensuring that "optical messages from one processor core could efficiently get to any of the other cores on the chip." Keep on livin' the dream IBM -- just ping us when this stuff is anywhere near ready for the commercial market.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Tags: cpu, ibm, light pulses, LightPulses, microprocessor, nanophotonic, Nanophotonic switch, NanophotonicSwitch, nanotechnology, optical data, OpticalData, processor, research

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Jagannath A @ Mar 17th 2008 9:09AM

too much geekiness involved.. cant think of anything sensible to comment...

nanotechnology FTW ;)

Neutral

Jared @ Mar 17th 2008 6:33PM

bah, nanotech is morally unacceptable

they really gotta stop making faster processors

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/20/two-thirds-of-americans-think-nanotechnology-is-morally-unaccept/

Neutral

Snowraver1 @ Mar 17th 2008 7:29PM

One day all thier hard work will pay off.

Years from now this technology might be in everything we use, or it might not and some other project that they are working on will. Only working on projects that can be brought to market in the short term is, well, short sighted. Stretching out there with ambitious projects is what really moves technology forward.

Neutral

Bufsabre @ Mar 17th 2008 9:49AM

nanotechnology? BLASPHEMY! jesus hates nanotech

Neutral

Zal @ Mar 17th 2008 9:51AM

Let there be light!

Neutral

Yubastard @ Mar 17th 2008 9:55AM

jaja he said pingus...

now, on topic, I think this will see it's light on the cell processor... kinda obvious, right?

Neutral

Wisam @ Mar 17th 2008 9:56AM

How about adding that to the PS3 cell processor IBM !

Neutral

Lee Cairns @ Mar 17th 2008 9:56AM

http://www.photonics.com/content/news/2008/January/3/90091.aspx

Neutral

Gaurav Dogra @ Mar 17th 2008 12:12PM

Man's advent into the world of Quantum Computation!

Neutral

Yor1001 @ Mar 17th 2008 1:29PM

instead of linking core why not just make photons photons in the cores that way there wont be heat and the speeds wil be faster than silicon. But a man could dream (quantum computing before I am dead please)

Neutral

Lee Cairns @ Mar 18th 2008 7:30AM

Light in fibers actually travels slower than electrons in copper wiring, though you could always use air guided Photonic crystals to guide the light. Also PhCs are in their infancy (the light equivalent of the semi conductor) so this is still quite a few years off yet, heck I'm working on a optical switch with a micron scale footprint that is being operated using the thermo optic effect, never mind using anything like a MOSFET.

Also a all optical computer isn't always a quantum computer, for a quantum computer you would need to be transporting photons at a time and be able to retain the qubits (quantum bits) superposition state at all times within the Qu computer, this would at least need 3-D PhCs for the mere transportation of them. I suppose you could use a slow light high Q cavity for storage, though I couldn't guarantee the retention of coherence while it's being stored. A quantum computer using light in the next 50 years? I doubt it.

Neutral