IBM's new chip using Silicon photonics:integrate optical communication technology

The communication channels has been replaced from normal electrical signals to light to increase the speed of communication. What if we use this technology in computer to pass the signal. Yes it is made possible by IBM's by developing a chip that uses light instead of electricity to pass the signals. It uses the technology called silicon photonics.
IBM developed a chip that integrates many of the necessary elements of optical communication between a processor and other devices. The design uses conventional rather than exotic chip manufacturing technology, involves very small components, and essentially permits a fiber-optic communication line to be attached directly to a processor.A single-chip transceiver of this kind with a capacity of 1 terabit per second could fit on to a chip measuring 16 square millimetres.
IBM's main aim of developing this chip is to build computers that perform very huge calculation quickly expected to be 1000 times faster than today's supercomputers.
IBM's this project is called as SNIPER(Silicon Nanoscale Integrated Photonic and Electronic Transceiver).It is not a recent projects research is being done over decade to reach this milestone.

Artist’ concept of 3D silicon processor chip with optical IO layer featuring on-chip nanophotonic network

Posted in: Computer-Today