Intel's opto-electronic 'breakthrough' could save this doomed Internet (or not)

It seems like every tale of impending bandwidth "disaster" is soon countered by a new bandwidth "breakthrough." In this case, researchers at Intel have been testing a silicon-based Avalanche Photo Detector (APD) (as opposed to the traditional, and rather expensive, indium phosphide), and so far results have been quite promising. On one key metric, something called the "gain-bandwidth product," the APD achieved speeds of 340GHz, or as the gang at Intel puts it, the "best result ever." It is hoped that this product could significantly lower the price of 40Gbit/s (and faster) optical links and find a home in areas like quantum cryptography, biochips and eventually chip-to-chip and on-chip interconnects. And most importantly, this could be huge for our national entertainment infrastructure: with online television gaining momentum and a spin-off of The Hills dropping soon, bandwidth has to be stretched to the breaking point as it is.

[Via VNU Net]

[Kris120890 @ Dec 9th 2008 1:12PM]

I read about this a couple of days ago. What they really need to do is start using all this technology if its so better and so much cheaper. Everyday there is a new story of the internet not working by 2011 but no one wants to do something about it.

[Fusion Fuzo 006 - Mr Professional @ Dec 9th 2008 1:13PM]

NICE



Professional
Fusion Fuzo

[Oli D @ Dec 9th 2008 1:18PM]

FIRST - Oh wait i'm an idiot in ever possible respect.

Especially because i wasn't first.

[Zinger314 @ Dec 9th 2008 1:20PM]

1080i porn over the internet is no longer a dream.

[Oli D @ Dec 9th 2008 1:24PM]

1080p Though, may take a few more years

[AC @ Dec 9th 2008 1:28PM]

some things were never meant to be seen.

[kal326 @ Dec 9th 2008 1:50PM]

@Oli D
I sure hope you mean that uncompressed 1080p will take a few years. I'm pretty sure they can get 1080p down the pipe now with compression and caching. Now realtime interactive 1080p webcam porn may take a few years.

[Oli D @ Dec 9th 2008 2:01PM]

@kal

Of course i did! What do you take me for?

[Platinum_Skeet @ Dec 9th 2008 1:52PM]

40Gbits Internet?!?

I think I just got wet....

[Salsa Shark @ Dec 9th 2008 3:35PM]

That'll take less than a minute to hit Comcast's cap...

[dBs @ Dec 9th 2008 2:04PM]

I'm guessing that this is some new way to use avalanche photodetectors because these things have been used in fiber optics for a long time now.

[Matt @ Dec 9th 2008 7:57PM]

I believe the benefit of THIS breakthrough is the performance of APDs build in regular Si CMOS, as opposed to the 'normal' optical semiconductors (indium phosphide for example, from the article). The ability to manipulate optics on the same silicon as, say, a microprocessor is that you only need ONE sliver of Si. This reduces the cost, size, power requirements, interconnect parasitics, and a whole host of other discrete-chip difficulties.

[NameIsDavid @ Dec 9th 2008 2:07PM]

We'll see what happens with this. The 40Gbps space is problematic because that data rate generally applied only to telecom infrastructure. These components are low volume and high cost (for reasons other than the cost of the electronics, such as related to reliability under myriad adverse conditions). As a result, the cost of the electronics isn't necessarily the bottleneck. Silicon-germanium made major inroads into this performance regime several years ago (not with the photodiode itself but rather with transimpedance amps, laser drivers, etc.), with development partially driven with telecom infrastructure in mind. However, after the dot com bubble burst, a lot of overbuilt fiber remained dark and there was little demand by the telecoms for upgrading their switches and relays.

[jltuttle @ Dec 9th 2008 11:48PM]

Your point?

[dustandechoes91 @ Dec 9th 2008 4:05PM]

It will save the internet!?!?!

...but I thought 4chan couldn't be destroyed!?!?!

[Dave @ Dec 10th 2008 12:51PM]

Engadget have missed the point.

It's for bigger CPUs, not for faster tinternet.

Intel have developed this to speed communication between processor cores. As the number of cores on processors grow, so does the distance between them. Light is faster, and light signals don't interfere with each other if they cross paths.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/08/intel_world_record_apd_research/

Heck, you can get a faster internet with just more copper. : D