IBM is ready to light up data transfers over long distances between computers with a new chip that could ultimately spell the end for slower electrical wiring.
After a decade of research, IBM has developed a new silicon photonics chip that can transfer data at aggregate speeds of 100Gbps (bits per second). In tests, the reference chip could transfer data using pulses of light over a distance of two kilometers.
Light can transfer data faster than copper cables, which are used in data centers to link storage, networking and servers in data centers. The silicon photonics chip could aid in introducing high-bandwidth optical fiber connections in future generations of supercomputers and servers, especially with vast amounts of data moving between computing resources.
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