Big Blue researchers have figured out how to use standard
manufacturing processes to make chips with built-in optical links that can
transfer 25 gigabits of data per second.
This close-up photo shows an IBM chip wired up with both
electrical links, shown in yellow, and optical waveguides, shown in blue.
Conventional computers today transfer data with electrons traveling along
electrical links, but researchers hope higher data-transfer speeds can be
achieved by sending photons on optical links.
(Credit: IBM Research)
IBM has advanced the technology of silicon photonics, fabricating a microchip
that has built-in components to send and receive data over optical links.
Researchers have built optical data links into chips before, but IBM's move
is notable because it uses conventional chipmaking equipment geared for chips
with 90-nanometer features. Today's chips use metal wires to exchange data, but
optical links offer the potential of higher transfer speeds over longer
distances.
The chip can include several optical components including wavelength division
multiplexers that let the chip send and receive signals with multiple
frequencies of light, an approach that lets more data be sent over the same
channel in a given amount of time.
The IBM chip can handle data rates of 25 gigabits per second, and the
researchers expect to increase that through technology improvements and by
building multiple communication channels that work in parallel.
The research is part of IBM's
continuing effort to improve computing performance despite Moore's
Law challenges.
IBM expects the technology to benefit large-scale systems -- supercomputers,
multiple servers linked together, or the data-pathway "backplanes" within
servers. It's not unusual for higher-end server technology to trickle down to
consumer products, though.
The 90nm process IBM used isn't as advanced as the 22nm one that Intel uses
for its latest "Ivy Bridge" generation of processors found in higher-end PCs
today. But IBM's approach is the first time silicon photonics has been built
into chips with a process size less than 100nm, the paper said. (A nanometer is
a billionth of a meter; about 1,100 elements of 90nm chip circuitry could fit
side by side across the diameter of a human hair.)
IBM's approach also makes efficient use of electrical power, an important
consideration given the power limits processor and computer designers face
today.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57557788-92/ibm-pushes-silicon-photonics-with-on-chip-optics/
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