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IBM: Smaller, faster, more energy-efficient optics
Replacing copper wires with tiny optics may shrink computers' size--and power usage.
A new connector that transmits information using pulses of light could replace the copper wires that connect computational cores in supercomputers. IBM's "silicon Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator" takes up less space than traditional copper wires--and 90 percent less energy. At speeds up to 100 times faster than wires, it's a likely harbinger of smaller, faster, more energy-efficient supercomputers.
Read the full story at BBC: "Light to shrink computer clusters"
