How It Works: The Light-Driven Computer

New integrated circuits use photons to build fast and extremely power-efficient supercomputers
By Valerie Ross

The speed of light is as fast as it gets, and IBM researchers are exploiting that fact to give supercomputers a boost. They’ve made the smallest-yet silicon chips that use light to transmit information.

Most parts of the chip resemble those found on any other commercial chip. The parts that process or transform information—in other words, the parts that do the actual computing—still deploy electrons moving through semiconductor gates. But the interconnects, the lines that shuttle information between different areas within a chip, are drastically different. Instead of shuttling electrons, which can slow down significantly when the interconnects heat up, they shuttle light. That’s because light is easy to contain and loses less information as it travels. The researchers hope that this quick communication will make possible the first exascale computers—that is, computers that can perform a billion billion computations per second, 1,000 times as fast as today’s speediest systems.

One other benefit, says IBM engineer Will Green: The optical interconnects use significantly less power, making them cheaper to run. That’s particularly important given that supercomputers typically consume megawatts of power during operation. IBM, which has already made a working prototype, says a commercial version of the chip will debut in a supercomputer in around 2018.

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Who Are Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce?

Who Are Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce?

Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce both
came up with the idea of the integrated
circuit. Kilby worked for Texas
Instruments. Noyce founded his own
company called Intel. In 2000 Kilby won a
Nobel Prize for his work.

Source: Seven Wonders of Communication
By:Donald Cleveland

Traffic Jam in the Sky

Satellites are objects placed into
orbit around Earth. They play a big
role in modern communication.
Many government or private groups
have put thousands of satellites in
the sky. Some have died out and
have become sky junk. New ones
go up all the time. Communication
satellites:
• Reflect or relay radio signals
• Connect to locations on the
ground and in the air with built-in
radio equipment
• Act as switchboards for
communication
• Carry more than half of all longdistance
telephone calls
• Carry TV broadcasts
• Provide military communications
• Help with Internet connections

Source: Seven Wonders of Communication
By:Donald Cleveland