A team of researchers used a single computer chip to transfer 1.84 petabytes (PB) of data per second, roughly twice the traffic of the entire Internet, and the equivalent of downloading about 230 million photos per second.
The breakthrough, which sets a new record in using a single computer chip to transmit data over a fiber optic cable, promises to lead to better-performing chips that can reduce energy costs and increase bandwidth.
A multinational team of scientists has achieved a major breakthrough in fiber optic data transmission, using a single computer chip to transmit 1.84 petabytes (PB) of data per second—roughly twice the total traffic of the internet and equivalent to about 100,000 downloads of 230 million photos per second. This advance has set a new record for a single chip transmitting data over an optical cable and is expected to lead to higher-performing chips and improved internet performance.
In the latest issue of the journal Nature Photonics, Asbjorn Arvada Jorgensen of the Technical University of Denmark and his colleagues from Denmark, Sweden and Japan report that they used a photonic chip (optical components integrated into a computer chip) that divides the data stream into thousands of independent channels and transmits them simultaneously over a range of 7.9 km.
The research team used a laser to split the data stream into 37 parts, each of which was sent through a separate core of the fiber optic cable, and then divided the data in each channel into 223 data blocks, which could be transmitted through the fiber optic cable in different colors without interfering with each other.
“The average global internet traffic is about 1 petabyte per second. We’re transporting twice that amount,” Jorgensen said. “That’s an incredible amount of data that we’re basically sending through less than a square millimeter [fiber optic cable]. It shows that we can go far beyond current internet connections.”
Jorgensen points out that the significance of this unprecedented achievement lies in miniaturization. Scientists had previously achieved data transfer speeds of 10.66 petabytes per second using large devices, but this research sets a new record in using a single computer chip to transmit data over a fiber optic cable, promising a single, simple chip that can send significantly more data than existing chips, thus reducing energy costs and increasing bandwidth.
Jorgensen also believes they can improve the current configuration. Although the chip requires a continuous-emitting laser and separate devices to encode data in each output stream, these can be integrated onto the chip, allowing the entire device to be as small as a matchbox.
The research team also speculates that if the system were resized to resemble a small server, the amount of data that could be transferred would be equivalent to that of 8,251 matchbox-sized devices today.
Post time: Nov-05-2022
