Intel's silicon laser promises faster data

Stan Beer
Monday, 18 September 2006 17:41

Your IT - Home IT

Researchers at chipmaker Intel and the University of California, Santa Barbara, have developed a break-through silicon chip that can emit a laser beam, paving the way for superfast internal communications inside computers.

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Acording to a report form the New York Times, the advance, which could be in commercial use within four years, will enable the transmission of data by laser light between chips rather than wires, enabling significant performance improvements.

Computer processors regularly access data from memory chips and other peripherals connected by wires to the system bus, wire tracks that carry data bi-directionally throughout the system.

The hard-wired bus has long been considered a major bottleneck in the throughput of data, which researchers believe can be eliminated through the use of wireless laser communications between chips.