Intel is literally exploding our concepts of computers with a new optical connection that could scatter the innards of a PC far and wide.
The chipmaker expects wide usage of light beams rather than electronic signals to link the parts of PCs by 2015 and says their long range means components could be spread throughout a building rather than contained in a box.
It’s hard initially to think of how that can be useful, when the trend has been to space-save, fitting ever smaller components inside smaller boxes. But Intel cites concepts such as “a wall-sized 3D display for home entertainment and videoconferencing with a resolution so high that the actors or family members appear to be in the room with you.”
In the enterprise, imagine the possible disappearance of the server room or even the data centre, as components are spread across buildings and campuses in pockets of available space and linked by optical fibres.
“I don’t want to overhype this, but here’s a collection of optical devices richer than the spate of devices that we had at the invention of the transistor,” Justin Rattner, Intel chief technology officer, told a media conference call.
“So one is not going too far in suggesting that the range of potential applications rivals what existed at the invention of the transistor… it’s only limited by our imagination.”
Intel hoped to see the technology widely deployed by the middle of the decade, he added.
The company has been researching silicon photonics for several years, resulting in the 50 gigabits per second (equivalent to an HD movie a second) “Silicon Photonics Link prototype” unveiled on Tuesday.
It consists of a transmitter chip combining four silicon lasers whose light beams pass through an optical modulator that encodes data onto them at 12.5Gb/s. Intel’s roadmap foresees a terabit per second of data being transmitted in the future. A receiver chip at the other end of the optical fibre link decodes the light beams back into electrical signals.
Current copper cabling and traces on circuit boards suffers from rapid signal degradation as their length is extended. Data centres with many copper cables could have them replaced by a single optical fibre.
Optical networking connections already exist but can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars and do not have the integration with computer components that Intel is demonstrating. Mr Rattner said the goal was to reduce costs to $1 a port connection.
The Silicon Photonics Link is different from Intel’s Light Peak technology – an optical cable that is aimed at reducing the number of port connections on a computer. Mr Rattner said it used traditional optical devices and scaling it beyond 10Gb/s speeds would be difficult. However, second or third generation Light Peak could be an excellent candidate for the new silicon photonics technology, he said.
