Intel Announces World First 40G Silicon Modulator
Intel Announces World First 40G Silicon Modulator
July 26th, 2007: Intel unveiled a silicon laser modulator that is capable of encoding optical data at speeds of up to 40 billion bits per second.
Yesterday’s announcement by Intel Research is a world first speed for a silicon optical modulator, with its 40 billion bits per second (bps). The current commercially available modulators run at only 10 billion bps.
When combined with a hybrid silicon laser, it will become possible to integrate multiple devices on a single chip. This could lead to the transmission of “terabits of data per second in the near future – truly enabling tera-scale computing” says Ansheng Liu, principal engineer at Intel's Corporate Technology Group.
High speed optical modulators are needed for Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs), which have the potential to provide cost-effective optical communication solutions. PICs on silicon platforms have attracted particular interest because of silicon’s low cost and high volume manufacturability.
Though its true that the actual implementation of the technology is a little thin on the ground so far, the potential for this breakthrough to usher in the era of tera-scale computing is immense.