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IBM Develops High Speed Optical Prototype
Written by Philip Buonpastore
Friday, 29 February 2008
PORTLAND, OR - IBM has reportedly developed the fastest, most highly integrated optical data bus ever built.
The prototype technology could reportedly bring greatly increased
bandwidth in an energy efficient package to many areas of technology,
from cell phones to supercomputers.
Developed by scientists at IBM's Zurich Research Lab, these optical
circuit boards, called "optocards," use an array of polymer optical
waveguides with a diameter smaller than a human hair to conduct light
between transmitters and receivers. Using light instead of wires to
transmit information reportedly allows a transmission rate of 8
terabits of data per second, which is equivalent to about 5,000 HD
video streams, while only using the power of a 100-Watt lightbulb. On a
printed circuit board, a databus of 48 polymer waveguides can use a
path 3 mm wide. Previous systems would use four times more space.
This increased energy efficiency and acceleration of speed will allow
the sharing of large datasets, and claimed potential advantages of the
increased bandwidth is far-reaching. The new technology could
significantly reduce the amount of power by supercomputers, translating
into a power savings of 10 times over currently available optical
modules.
"Last year we introduced an optical transceiver chip set that had the
capability to transmit a high-defintion movie in less than one second
using highly customized parts and processes. Just a year later, we've
connected these high-speed chips through printed circuit boards with
dense integrated optical “wiring” [building] an even faster
transceiver... using all standard, commercially available parts and
tools," explains IBM researcher Clint Schow. "These aren't theoretical
experiments or chips sitting in unique conditions in a lab, but rather
chipsets that could hit the market in the next two years. The
innovation lies in the fact that we are making optics with the same
kind of packaging as electronics."
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Aries Electronics introduces the CSP/BallNest Hybrid Socket for test or burn-in of chip scale package, ball grid array, microBGA, land grid array and prototyping. It can be used on any device having a pitch of 0.30 mm or larger. Features include a lid that nests each ball termination into the socket for a reliable connection and a four-point crown providing scrub on solder oxides. It has a signal path of 0.0777 inches and provides minimal signal loss for higher bandwidth capability. Estimated contact life is 500,000 cycles, and the socket is available in custom materials, sizes, configurations and platings. www.arieselec.com
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