Intel announced a significant advancement in silicon photonics, making way for a better, faster network between computer processors.
Silicon photonics can be best defined as the pairing of semiconductor lasers with silicon integrated circuits. These photonics enable swift data transfers over longer distances than your average electronics. Additionally, they provide a higher bandwidth and a software-defined infrastructure for datacenters.
When it comes to integrated photonics, Intel reigns supreme. Its current 100G transceivers have been around for more than five years. Intel also started to commercialize its 400G transceivers and announced that 800G options are underway.
However, to take things further with 800G, Intel must perfect the technique of integrated photonics, wherein a circuit is directly connected to other parts of the operating system.
Silicon photonics
While Intel only imagined achieving this technology last year, the latest research achieved true silicon photonics. This technique is expected to help create a future output/input photonic interface that has improved bandwidth and energy efficiency with a broader coverage area.
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