Thursday, March 17, 2011
New compact laser diode breakthrough
Until now, the biggest challenge has been the failure rate of these tiny devices. They don’t work very well when they face huge workloads; the stress makes them crack.
IBM has another complementary solution.The modulator's waveguide structure, as well as the size of the device are both limited by the wavelength of light used. IBM's current generation coupler has a 500nm waveguide, and the device itself is a mere 200 micrometers long, half the wavelength of the laser's light. This makes it easily small enough to fit between current generation multi-core processor cores.
The device is many times more efficient than current bus technology. IBM bills speeds at 100 to 1,000 times faster than electrical, with energy consumption of 50 milliwatts or less.
IBM has another complementary solution.The modulator's waveguide structure, as well as the size of the device are both limited by the wavelength of light used. IBM's current generation coupler has a 500nm waveguide, and the device itself is a mere 200 micrometers long, half the wavelength of the laser's light. This makes it easily small enough to fit between current generation multi-core processor cores.
The device is many times more efficient than current bus technology. IBM bills speeds at 100 to 1,000 times faster than electrical, with energy consumption of 50 milliwatts or less.