Photonic breakthrough could mean 60x faster internet speeds

Every so often, we get wind of some new "breakthrough" from a few guys / gals in a lab that promises to simply revolutionize the web. A team from the University of Sydney is the latest bunch to do so, claiming that a piece of scratched glass (or a Photonic Integrated Circuit, if we're being proper) could enable internet speeds 60 times faster than "current Australian networks." Essentially, the "circuit uses the scratch as a guide or a switching path for information," and the resulting product is "photonic technology that has terabit per second capacity." Call us when you folks get everything ironed out -- we'll be over at Sigbritt Löthberg's house.

[Via The Future of Things, thanks iddo]

[thedesolate1 @ Jul 16th 2008 10:10AM]

Oh my the MPAA is gonna shit in its pants over this one....

[%u258C @ Jul 16th 2008 7:07PM]

this time with 60x the speed of a normal brick shitter

[Toby @ Jul 16th 2008 10:10AM]

Hooray! Maybe we can now get faster internet like the rest of the world.

[Gurulism @ Jul 16th 2008 10:13AM]

I'd like to be slower.

Slower is Faster.

[Dead_Rebel @ Jul 16th 2008 11:33AM]

It's the new black.

[Pete @ Jul 16th 2008 10:16AM]

Please don't let Telstra get their hands on this exclusively. They will do their best to screw it up for everyone.

[ryan.sahb @ Jul 17th 2008 3:02AM]

So so true. I think I speak for everyone when I say Telstra are the result of everything evil ever.

[daniel @ Jul 16th 2008 10:18AM]

omg, i sent this thru to engadget more than a week ago. do you guys even read the tips people send you??

[Mark S @ Jul 16th 2008 10:38AM]

Perhaps they just got to it today because they get so many tips a day...

[Jake Pollack @ Jul 16th 2008 10:39AM]

They don't. I found out about the whole ipod touch 1.1.5 thing thing morning at about 6:00 and they still have yet to post it, since they post a lot of apple stuff.

[I.P.Freely @ Jul 16th 2008 10:53AM]

Did you make sure you were wearing your black mock turtleneck and round eyeglasses when submitting it? I find that it makes them much more responsive.

[nickel_pl8ed @ Jul 16th 2008 11:13AM]

Maybe they haven't converted to the new Australian PIC's yet and their pathetic system couldn't handle the bandwith of your awesome tip that came in so blazing fast that they had to take the day off just to research what in the hell they needed to keep up with you.

[Sarig @ Jul 16th 2008 12:08PM]

Jake: Here's iPod touch 1.1.5 http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/15/ipod-touch-1-1-5-shows-up-confusion-abounds/

Had to go back 3 pages to find it ;)

[Grey @ Jul 16th 2008 2:57PM]

Oh - Engadget got it, but they've been downloading it since you sent your tip, but it took them a week because their internet is a COMCASTIC 28.8 Kb/s connection for the low price of a 3Mb/s line.

[Jody @ Jul 16th 2008 10:29AM]

Didn't HAL have photonic circuits, I remember Bob Balaban pushing in clear glass circuit cards in 2010 to bring the discovery back online...... Uh oh......

[bob @ Jul 16th 2008 10:29AM]

"[...] from a few guys / gals in a lab [...] "

That's ok, Engadget, we don't have to pretend. We all know it's only guys who accomplish this kind of engineering magic.



...what? That gal in the background of the photo? No, she's just the cleaning lady who happenend to in the lab at that moment. She started laughing just because everyone else was.

[meist3r @ Jul 16th 2008 11:11AM]

I hope this was meant sarcastically, If you really believe that women don't work in tech jobs or don't have anything to do with geeky stuff go buy a copy of female produced Assassins Creed and chew on that for a while. Why shouldn't she be one of the engineers? I know just a few guys that have as much patience to test out and fiddle with stuff as many women do.

[joe23521 @ Jul 16th 2008 11:41AM]

Lighten up.

[bob @ Jul 16th 2008 12:17PM]

@ meist3r

It's very ironic that while you so keenly attack a stereotype, you splendidly reinforce another one: that German's are so goddamn politically correct it's not even funny.

Seriously, I know and appreciate German people quite a lot… except when they inevitably say one of the following:
- That joke is sexist/racist, I cannot accept with it, and I won’t even do you the honour of a smile.
- Germany sucks. Being German sucks. We all suck so much I want to kill myself.

[farfisa @ Jul 16th 2008 1:07PM]

If you read the article, you'd know she was a researcher.

Unfortunately, since she didn't speak English, she pretty much just did light cleaning and brought snacks.

[ddub @ Jul 16th 2008 1:10PM]

They put a team working on a picosatellite on the front cover of one of the magazines for my school. What they didn't mention was that half the the students on the picture were from the soccer team that they grabbed for the shoot. It looked like they actually had some cute girls on the satellite team.

[Grey @ Jul 16th 2008 3:02PM]

FEMALES produced Assassins Creed?!?!

THAT explains the beautiful well-aranged flowers, er, scenery, and the total lack of half-decent gameplay mechanics that don't belong on a cellphone game.

Also the shopping-list-style side quests that take up the 80% of the time before any violence.

Guess I'll have to keep looking - the cooking minigame is BOUND to be in there somewhere!

aaaaand... SUBMIT

*ducks under his desk*

[John @ Jul 16th 2008 10:32AM]

MPAA or Google will buy the patent and #$%#$ internet. ;)

Hopefully it will make uploads 60x faster. I am stuck with 20Mbit down and 1Mbit up.

Rightnow 100Mbit down and 10Mbit sounds amazing to me!

[meist3r @ Jul 16th 2008 11:12AM]

Lol, 20 down 1 up would be fantastic. I have a 6Mbit down and 768K upstream line and that's the second fastest line available. Germany really blows when it comes to internet speeds for consumers. And upload rates especially.

[Mic2000 @ Jul 16th 2008 11:21AM]

Holland:

20Mbit down, 1Mbit up. 20 euro a month, and 10 euro a month more you also have unlimited phone calls (to local numbers :))

[Mam00th @ Jul 16th 2008 10:32AM]

"could enable internet speeds 60 times faster than "current Australian networks." "

Kangooroo max speed: 44 mph

Internet with this speed: 2640 mph

[Mam00th @ Jul 16th 2008 10:35AM]

Internet speed with this chip*

I should proofread....

[Sarig @ Jul 16th 2008 12:11PM]

Screw proofreading, I'm still chuckling from imagining kangooros overtaking commercial airlines :)

[ryan.sahb @ Jul 17th 2008 3:06AM]

But if kangaroos could move that fast after this, wouldn't that mean they could kick at supersonic rates?

THE WORLD IS DOOMED

[John @ Jul 16th 2008 10:38AM]

"could enable internet speeds 60 times faster than "current Australian networks." "

They still have dial-up and consider 256Kbit and 512Kbit "Broadband" in Australia.

So basicly it can mean 60x dialup or 60x256Kbit!!

[Corey S. @ Jul 16th 2008 11:11AM]

Australia has a 23% broadbrand penetration, as opposed to the US's 29% broadband penetration. Please do researching before spewing falicies.

[Husar @ Jul 16th 2008 11:32AM]

wth, im in Aus, and im on 24Mbits, almost all available plans now have that speed
so id say its more like 60 x 24Mbit

[John @ Jul 16th 2008 11:33AM]

If you look at providers such as:

http://www.pacific.net.au/
http://www.ozonline.com.au/

They are offering dial-up and calling 256kbit and 512kbit "Broadband"


Although you can get 30Mbit cable internet in places such as Sydney and Melbourne, there are still companies offering dial-up and calling 256Kbit broadband.

The 60x dial-up was a joke!

[Silverfrog @ Jul 16th 2008 12:27PM]

re: CoreyS

It is spelled fallacy. You lose a bit of steam from your intellectual debate when you don't spell the big words correctly.

[Logboy @ Jul 16th 2008 10:39AM]

Okay, but how much am I going to have to pay for it?

[Maeztro @ Jul 16th 2008 10:39AM]

Porn so fast it's over before you had a chance to rub one out.

[Adam @ Jul 16th 2008 10:49AM]

"Okay, but can it download porn?" "When this baby hits 88 gigabits per second, you're gonna see some serious shit!"

Probably not the exact quote, and I don't even remember what it's from, but it totally came to mind!

[Musketeer @ Jul 16th 2008 11:08AM]

"When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you’re going to see some serious sh*t"

Its a quote from Doc Brown in Back To The Future.

Awesome movie :)

[Adam @ Jul 16th 2008 11:13AM]

This might end up double posting buuuut...
It's actually a parody of said quote, probably off some Adult Swim show or something of the like.

[Pingmeister @ Jul 16th 2008 10:50AM]

These types of breakthroughs are nice but let me know when it is in place. I am sick of hearing about all these crazy speeds for years and I'm still stuck with DSL as my best option where I live (30 minutes from Silicon Valley).

[RaynorWolfcastle @ Jul 16th 2008 10:55AM]

I work with PICs and I've met Ben Eggleton at a conference (the guy in the photo). While I can't find a link to the actual paper, I imagine this is likely something along the lines of a 6x100 Gbps all-optical switch being compared to the actual 10 Gbps network.

There are many, many groups working on PICs around the world and this is but a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to making a full PIC-based network. Still, they deserve to be commended for bringing mainstream press attention to the field :)

[Josh @ Jul 16th 2008 11:20AM]

They'll offer you whatever speeds they want but I'm SURE if it ever goes commercial, they'll put a cap on it. You'll have your 300Tbps for .1sec and then you fill up your cap! haha

This guy tried to fill up his current cap, look at his results: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=544&doc_id=158536&f_src=flffour

[Ash Leavenworth @ Jul 16th 2008 11:42AM]

Ya know... i dont like headlines like this.
"COULD MEAN 60x FASTER INTERNET!"
Yeah, thats great and all. Im sure someone in the world is enjoying 1Tb/sec. But id be happy with just 2x faster internet. Comcast has been stuck at 4Mb/sec in my area for almost 5 years.

[bonedog73 @ Jul 16th 2008 11:53AM]

Work - 150MB up/down Wireless Microwave - except everything is blocked... well except engadget of course.

Home - 4MB down/ 350k up :( Comcast blows...

[Randy @ Jul 16th 2008 11:57AM]

Must be a slow news day.

[Jon @ Jul 16th 2008 12:11PM]

Can I set it to the 'kill' setting and take out some Viacom dudes.

[Mark @ Jul 16th 2008 12:57PM]

I bet this will only come out in Korea and Japan..and leave North America in the slow lane...like always.

[Timmy @ Jul 16th 2008 1:07PM]

So is this in Australian Terabits or Terabits US? I always get the conversion all messed up.

[facebookfake @ Jul 16th 2008 1:29PM]

Lucky. I pay for 2Mb/s and get one. Thanks Comcast and you stranglehold on my community.

[ryan.sahb @ Jul 17th 2008 3:08AM]

We pay for 24mb/s and get 512kb/s. D: