IBM is looking to combine both its proficiency for power and its environmental interests in a new effort. IBM demoed an ultra-fast optical connection earlier this week which it feels will revolutionize the world of supercomputing and IT centers, as well as eventually trickling down to the consumer.
IBM's new technology can transmit at speeds of up to 8 trillion bits a second (8 Tbps), or as IBM puts it, "equivalent to about 5,000 high-definition video streams." Better yet, the new technology only uses 100 Watts to transmit the massive amount of data -- about the energy required to power a lightbulb.
IBM plans on first deploying the technology commercially in the supercomputers market. A typical 100 ft electrical wire datalink uses 100 times more power than IBM's prototype, while a typical 100 ft optical data link uses 10 times more power. Thus there is significant savings in both energy and waste, making the technology doubly "green."
Better yet IBM is working hard to make the technology available in a single package, which includes the optical chips and the optical data bus and utilizes standard components. This should help to make the technology affordable and ease installation troubles. IBM Researcher Clint Schow, part of the research team working on the link describes IBM's rapid advances, stating, "Last year we unveiled an optical transceiver chip-set that could transmit a high-definition movie in under a second using highly customized optical components and processes. Just a year later, we've now connected those high speed chips through printed circuit boards with dense integrated optical 'wiring.' Now we have built an even faster transceiver and have moved the optical components away from custom devices to more standard parts procured from a volume manufacturer, taking an important step toward commercializing the technology."
IBM's technology uses low-loss polymer wave guides on optically enabled circuit boards known as "Optocards." The wave guides are smaller in diameter than a human hair in size. IBM's "Optochip" manages the massive amount of raw data streaming along the bus.
The Optochip uses a 3D assembly process, which packs in the complex processing circuitry. The data bus features a whopping 80 gigabits per channel over 32 channels. This is historic first, described by IBM as the "first ever demonstration of an integrated module-to-module, 32-channel optical datalink on a printed circuit board."
IBM looks to bring a "scaled down" version of its high speed interconnect to consumer electronics such as cell phones, PDAs and MP3 players in the near future. This will allow handheld manufacturers to build extremely small and low voltage devices capable of high definition video on incredibly small power envelopes.