Intel researchers are a step closer to creating chips that use light instead of electrons, but production remains over the horizon.
Yesterday, team of Intel researchers unveiled a high-speed silicon optical modulator that is capable of encoding data at speeds up to 40G bits per second. This speed is in bar with the fastest non-silicon optical modulators, but those are made of "more exotic electro-optic materials such as lithium niobate and III-V compound semiconductors" which are much more expensive and hard to manufacture.
This technology will allow computers and other devices to transmit several terabits of data per second. Optical communications would carry data farther than ordinary copper wires, and eliminate heat loss due to electrons passing through copper resistance.
