Replacing wire with laser, Sun tries to speed up data

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So, how small can you make a solid-state laser?

I assume that the lasers will be manufactured in-situ on the same die that the CPU is on. If so the laser could be microscopic in size and the geometry of the laser precisely controlled. Since optical fibres are just silicon dioxide (glass) presumably light channels could be created during the chip manufacturing process through the selective oxidation of silicon channels. The waveguides need only be a few molecules of silicon thick and could lead to other components on the chip or to optical interface ports off chip. Data transfer would be done in serial, but when using light your bandwidth would be much higher. The same type of technology was implemented with copper wires in the old Inmos transputers where individual chips communicated with each other via 4 high speed serial interfaces. Same concept here just better technology.

Posted by: burtoni   Posted on: 03/27/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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