Prototype for Si based optical data connections
with lasers from Intel
Intel has developed a research prototype representing a
silicon-based optical data connection with integrated lasers.
Intel says that the link enable movement of data over longer
distances and many times faster than today's copper technology;
up to 50 gigabits of data per second.
Intel says that today's computer components are connected
to each other using copper cables or traces on circuit boards.
Due to the signal degradation that comes with using metals
such as copper to transmit data, these cables have a limited
maximum length. This limits the design of computers, forcing
processors, memory and other components to be placed just
inches from each other. Today's research achievement is
another step toward replacing these connections with extremely
thin and light optical fibers that can transfer much more
data over far longer distances, radically changing the way
computers of the future are designed and altering the way
the datacenter of tomorrow is architected.
The release states, silicon photonics will have applications
across the computing industry. For example, at these data
rates one could imagine a wall-sized 3D display for home
entertainment and videoconferencing with a resolution so
high that the actors or family members appear to be in the
room with you. Tomorrow's datacenter or supercomputer may
see components spread throughout a building or even an entire
campus, communicating with each other at high speed, as
opposed to being confined by heavy copper cables with limited
capacity and reach. This will allow datacenter users, such
as a search engine company, cloud computing provider or
financial datacenter, to increase performance, capabilities
and save costs in space and energy, or help scientists build
powerful supercomputers.
Justin Rattner, Intel chief technology officer and director
of Intel Labs, demonstrated the Silicon Photonics Link at
the Integrated Photonics Research conference in Monterey,
Calif. The 50Gbps link is akin to a "concept vehicle"
that allows Intel researchers to test new ideas and continue
the company's quest to develop technologies that transmit
data over optical fibers, using light beams from low cost
silicon rather than GaAs. While telecommunications and other
applications already use lasers to transmit information,
current technologies are too expensive and bulky to be used
for PC applications.
"This achievement of the world's first 50Gbps silicon
photonics link with integrated hybrid silicon lasers marks
a significant achievement in our long term vision of 'siliconizing'
photonics and bringing high bandwidth, low cost optical
communications in and around future PCs, servers, and consumer
devices" Rattner said.
The 50Gbps Silicon Photonics Link prototype includes both
silicon transmitter and receiver chip and the Hybrid Silicon
Laser co-developed with the University of California at
Santa Barbara in 2006 as well as high-speed optical modulators
and photodetectors announced in 2007.
The transmitter chip with four lasers that beams encoded
data at 12.5Gbps. The four beams are then combined onto
a single optical fiber for a total data rate of 50Gbps.
The receiver chip at the other end separates the four optical
beams and directs them into photo detectors to convert them
back into electrical signals. Intel said Both chips are
assembled using low-cost manufacturing techniques familiar
to the semiconductor industry. Intel researchers are already
working to increase the data rate by scaling the modulator
speed as well as increase the number of lasers per chip,
providing a path to future terabit/s optical links, rates
fast enough to transfer a copy of the entire contents of
a typical laptop in one second.
This research is separate from Intel's Light Peak technology,
though both are components of Intel's overall I/O strategy.
Light Peak is an effort to bring a multi-protocol 10Gbps
optical connection to Intel client platforms for nearer-term
applications. Silicon Photonics research aims to use silicon
integration to bring dramatic cost reductions, reach tera-scale
data rates, and bring optical communications to an even
broader set of high-volume applications. Today's achievement
brings Intel a significant step closer to that goal, adds
Intel.
For more information visit: www.intel.com