IBM announces optical chipset, transfer speed 160Gb per second

International Business Machines Corp. announced on Monday the manufacture of a new chipset, which will transfer data at a speed of 160Gb per second.

The tiny optical chipset would reduce the time needed to download software and applications considerably. It is alleged that a high definition movie would be downloaded in a few seconds as opposed to the current time of 30 minutes. The data transfer speed of this chipset is eight times as compared to the speed of currently available chipsets.

"The explosion in the amount of data being transferred, when downloading movies, TV shows, music, or photos, is creating demand for greater bandwidth and higher speeds in connectivity," T.C. Chen, vice president of Science & Technology at IBM Research stated. "Greater use of optical communications is needed to address this issue. We believe our optical transceiver technology may provide the answer."

The chipset, 3.25mm by 5.25mm in size, contains optical components such as indium phosphide & gallium arsenide. A prototype of the same will be introduced at the 2007 Optical Fiber conference at Anaheim, California.

While normal chipsets transfer data via the conventional method of driving electrons through metal wires, this chipset incorporates optical fiber technology, i.e. it transfers data via light pulses traveling through plastic tubes.

The utilization of optical fibers allows the chip to expend less energy. Heat losses are, therefore, ruled out. Since there is no excessive heating, the chip also obviates the need & the costs of air conditioning. The new chipset, thus, proves to be an economical option. The optical transceiver of the chipset has been made with standard CMOS technology.

Copper will be an integral part of the system, at least initially, used wherever slow speeds are sufficient. It is essential in power delivery and will act as an interface between the processor and the memory. Copper is also necessary to maintain control signals which monitor the wellness of the system. "You're not going to make copper disappear, but we assume all the high-speed channels would be replaced," Taubenblatt said.

The new chipset will be available for all consumer applications by 2010, IBM stated, as it will take around three years to incorporate optical transceivers into its main product line. This is because suppliers need an equivalent amount of time to produce enough parts for IBM.

According to Marc Taubenblatt, senior manager for Optical Communications Group at IBM Research, the chipset would optimally be used in equipment found in data centres such as rack servers. This is because the chipset is tailor-made to transfer data over a distance of less than one meter. The chip could also be used for communication between processor modules on circuits. Basically, the chip manages data entering and leaving the system.

As the technology evolves itself, it could find applications in homes as well. It could be used in set-top boxes to process and store high definition movies. Initially though, the technology is expected to be used in data-directing hardware, such as routers and switches. It may also be used for the same in supercomputers. According to Taubenblatt, “We're probably four or five years out before it starts showing up in leading-edge products."

The tiny chipset is equivalent to 32 computers, and it carries with itself the possibility of becoming even smaller in size. Fred Zieber, analyst for Pathfinder Research, said, "It certainly increases the density of transmitting information because it packs a lot in a small footprint. In that respect, it promises to lower cost by five to 10 times."

Other chip manufacturers have also begun exploring options, which utilize optical technology. Researchers at Intel Corp. and the University of California at Santa Barbara said they had discovered how to build low-cost "laser chips" that move data much faster than standard copper wire systems, last September.

The full name of the chip set is the "160Gbit/sec., 16-channel, full-duplex, single-chip CMOS optical transceiver" and would be available at a price ranging from $500 to $600, so believes IBM. The company is targeting at reducing the cost to about the same as for chips, which incorporate conventional wires. "That's what we're competing with," Taubenblatt said. "We think we can get down to the same price target for optical."