According to recent news from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) official website, Ayar Labs, the university's startup company, combined optical and electronics technologies, has developed a new type of faster and more efficient optoelectronic chip, which is expected to improve the speed of calculation. Increase the bandwidth of large-scale data centers by 10 times, reduce the power consumption of communications between chips by 95%, and reduce the total energy consumption by 30% to 50%. It is reported that the latest commercial technology will be available in 2019.
Ayar Labs' optoelectronic chips use light to transmit data, but still use electrons for calculations. This unique design approach enables fast and efficient photonic communication, the use of lightwaves to transmit data into components integrated into traditional computer chips, eliminating the need for inefficient copper. Wire. The company’s chief executive officer, Alex Wright-Gardstein, said: “Now, there is a bandwidth bottleneck in big data centers, and the birth of our products is just the right time.”
The researchers explained that data is constantly being transmitted between chips of different functions. If copper wires are used, even if the processing capability of the chip is increasing, the 'bottleneck' may be caused by limited data transmission on the wire. The chip must wait a long time to send and Receiving data. The optical wire can transmit multiple data signals with different wavelengths of light; and each copper wire can only transmit one signal, so the light chip can use less space to transmit more information. Moreover, the waste heat generated by photons is rarely , Copper wire transmission data will generate a lot of waste heat, loss of chip efficiency.
At present, many research teams are producing photonic chips. However, Ayar Labs has taken a different approach and developed a new class of miniature optical components including photodetectors, optical modulators, waveguides, and optical filters that can transmit light at different wavelengths. The information was encoded, transmitted and decoded. The researchers used a compact approach to integrate these optical devices onto the chip, resulting in new optoelectronic chips that eliminated copper wires.
It is reported that the first product of this new technology is the optical input/output system named 'Brilliant', which is scheduled to be launched in 2019.
Editor's Editor
In addition to increasing bandwidth and reducing energy consumption, this optoelectronic chip can also be used in supercomputers that are tightly connected to data centers, as well as in auto-driving cars, medical equipment, augmented reality and many other optical fields. Designers originally sought to solve the problem of traditional silicon chips. The bottleneck, but in the end, to everyone's excitement, this technology has found a variety of uses. It will change the practicality of optics beyond what we can currently predict, and the way the world uses optics.