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IBM Claims It Can Slow Down the Light Light could be stored in buffers	By Ionut Ciocirlie, Hardware Editor 30th of December 2006, 08:31 GMT Adjust text size:


As weird as it may seem, the statement is actually true. Photonics have been viewed as key technology that could accelerate the speed of future chips for some time, mainly because light signals are able to transfer more data at faster pace than electrical signals. In practice however, there were several problems regarding the delay of the light beams that had to be applied when buffers were used. IBM claims to have solved this problem by developing a device capable of "buffering" light in a space small enough to fit on a silicon chip. IBM said that they have produced a "new form" of silicon-based optical delay line built of up to 100 cascaded "micro-ring resonators," that can actually delay the optical signal for a fixed amount of time. Using a simple concept, the device can store 10 bits of optical information within an area of only 0.03 mm2, equivalent to about ten percent of the storage density of a floppy disk according to IBM and represents "a great improvement" over previous results. The storage device works by curving the optical fiber in which the light travels and by that forcing the beam to move in circles. As a result, the light is delayed with a precise time related to the implementation of the loop. The micro-ring resonators were built using common CMOS fabrication line by IBM. So the manufacturing process is quite cheap, meaning that the technology could be adopted soon. The photonic circuitry could then be used to manipulate light in order to achieve transfer rates that were unobtainable using electrical wiring. Sounds kind of SF like, doesn't it? 2006 was indeed a crazy year and 2007 will probably be even crazier. Quad cores, insane DDR speeds, overclocked 8800 cards, all those emotions and thrills need some time to cool down. But don't worry; the world is not coming to an end. Things have just begun to move. With the hope that my small articles helped you in some way, I wish you all a "Happy New Year!"

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