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The Intel team in Israel succeeded in developing elcetro-optical chipsets based on silicon wafers capable of converting electronic signals to optic signals within the chip itself, according to Israeli Daily Ha'Aretz.
This will allow computer components to be able to communicate with each other at the speed of light. This breakthrough promises to bring a revolution in the world of computing and telecommunications within the next 5-10 years. These chips have the potential to be mass produced at the same cost as standard chips unlike the manufacturing cost of an optical chip which runs into hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Amir Elstein, the co-CEO of Intel Israel and director of Intel's Jerusalem facility explained that today’s fastest processors operate at speed’s of three gigahertz but the other components work in megahertz which is a major bottleneck, when the chips, the processor and the ports of the computer speak at the same speed, which will be about 10 gigahertz, the computer’s capability will be totally different.
He also added that unlike today’s chipsets most of the data will be transferred via a single optic opening of one optic port.
A beam of light is split into two separate beams as it passed through silicon, and then a novel transistor-like device is used to hit one beam with an electric charge, inducing a `phase shift.' When the two beams of light are recombined, the phase shift induced between the two arms makes the light exiting the chip go on and off at over one gigahertz (one billion bits of data per second), 50 times faster than previously produced on silicon. This on and off pattern of light can be translated into the 1's and 0's needed to transmit data.
This breakthrough will give rise to limitless possibilities in the field of computing and telecommunications.
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