Intel plots demise of Ethernet

Chip giant Intel has demonstrated for the first time how it intends to make optical networking as inexpensive as copper Ethernet.

The Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco saw the world's first demonstration of a new silicon optical modulator capable of transmitting data at 1Gbps, which exceeds the previous speed record of 20Mbps by a factor of fifty.

Dr Kevin Khan, director of Intel's communications technology lab, demonstrated the technology. "Ethernet is so cost effective that you can't buy a laptop without an Ethernet connection," he said. "We want to do that for optical technology."

Pat Gelsinger, Intel's chief technology officer, was bullish about the new technology. "This will literally change our world," he said.

"Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth: it's crucial. We want to deliver gigabit networking to everyone on the planet. This will take massive steps in computing and communications and that's what we do well."

The move towards optical technology is part of a 10-year programme within Intel. PCs equipped with this silicon photonics technology should be available by the end of the decade, added Khan.

Optical networking is already widely used in the internet backbone and some corporations because of its high data rate transfers; the theoretical maximum data rate is 100 trillion bits per second. But the cost of equipment makes it difficult for most to justify.

This cost comes from the exotic materials used to bend and modulate light so that it can carry data. Light waves have to be split and then reformed so that they can act as the 1 and 0 that make up all binary information.

Intel's approach is to use etched silicon tunnels to do the same job, and claims that this would be much more efficient, as light can be directed with absolute certainty.

By using transistor-like devices in these silicon gateways Intel is hoping to reduce the costs of optical technology.