Breakthrough technology to enable much faster computing

WASHINGTON: A new chip technology that integrates electrical and optical devices on the same silicon bit, would enable smaller, faster and more power-efficient chips than is possible with conventional ones.

The new technology, called CMOS Integrated Silicon Nanophotonics, is the result of a decade of development at IBM's global research labs.

The patented technology will change and improve the way computer chips communicate, by integrating optical devices and functions directly onto a silicon chip, enabling over 10-fold improvement in performance, according to an IBM statement.

IBM anticipates that Silicon Nanophotonics will dramatically increase the speed and performance between chips, helping the company to develop the world's most powerful supercomputer that can perform one million trillion calculations or an exaflop in a second.

An exascale supercomputer is expected to be 1,000 times faster than the fastest machine today. "The development of the Silicon Nanophotonics technology brings the vision of on-chip optical interconnections much closer to reality," said T.C. Chen, vice-president, Science and Technology, IBM Research.

"With optical communications embedded into the processor chips, the prospect of building power-efficient computer systems with performance at the exaflop level is one step closer to reality," Chen said.