New research from IBM could bring the speed of fiber optic networks to computer processors, resulting in chips 100 times faster and 10 times more efficient. IBM published the research on electro-optic modulators in the journal Optics Express on Thursday.
The research centers on the modulators that connect the cores in multicore chips. Current multicore technology uses silicon photonics modulators to connect cores, which results in high heat and energy consumption, and limits how many cores can fit on a chip.
By using optics instead of wires, IBM researchers have shown they can fit hundreds or thousands of cores on a chip, which will one day mean supercomputer-like processing power will fit on a chip.
Fiber Optics on a Chip
The technical name of the new modulator is “silicon Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator” and it can convert electrical signals into packets of light. Not only would optical modulators allow many more cores to fit on a chip, but also communication between the cores would be faster.
“Work is under way within IBM and in the industry to pack many more computing cores on a single chip, but today’s on-chip communications technology would overheat and be far too slow to handle that increase in workload,” T.C. Chen, a vice president at IBM Research, explained.
“What we have done is a significant step toward building a vastly smaller and more power-efficient way to connect those cores in a way that nobody has done before,” Chen said.
But don’t hold off on buying the latest multicore technology. Will Green, IBM’s lead scientist on the project, was quoted by Reuters as saying that commercial applications of this research are at least 10 to 15 years away.
The technology would essentially take the supercomputer out of the data center, Green said, enabling powerful mobile and real-time rendering applications. “You immediately can…