New frontier: Chips transfer data at light speed
Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 23:30
in Physics & Chemistry
The computer industry is nearing a crisis: microchips get smaller and faster but they struggle to transfer data at sufficient speeds. Electrons flowing through standard chip connections are just too slow. Now researchers have shown how chips with built-in lasers which use multiple wavelengths of light could in the future transmit data at terabit speeds.