In an announcement on Tuesday Intel announced that it has developed a new prototype interconnect that will use light instead of the conventional copper wires for data transfer in computers. The interconnect will be capable of transferring at a speed of 50 gigabits per second. As per the researchers the entire movie can be transferred in just a matter of a second with the use of the prototype. The technology is built on silicon photonics technology.
The data can be transferred at longer distances with the technology rather than the previous used technologies like electrons. The new technology was particularly necessary as the data transfer with copper wires were reaching its limits. As the amount of data to be transferred is ever increasing and that too at greater speeds the copper wires were posing a challenge for the same. Its even difficult to get the transfer done for long distances if the speed is met with the wires.
Intel’s chief technology officer Justin Rattner discussing the importance of the technology that Optical interconnects solve that problem by allowing data transfers at much faster rates approx 10Gbps and over longer distances. He added “Photonics gives us the ability to move those mass quantities of data across the room… in a cost-effective matter.” The technology has the potential of reaching up to terabit range.
The optical technology will be an answer in the PCs or even handheld devices. A similar technology is already seen in devices such as DVD players, and also for applications such as long-distance communication. At first the technology will not be integrated into CPUs but will be used as an optical data link between devices.
The next target is to build an entire manufacturing process for the technology to be used in bigger way. A cost of a dollar per optical port is what the company is aiming to take the technology.
The official added “Once we’re confident that we have a high-volume manufacturing process in our hands, then we’ll turn to the business perspective: what markets are attractive to Intel, what markets do we need partners to satisfy.”