Intel and Fujitsu Rework Computer Wiring

[Blade of Grass]

Fujitsu and Intel announced a significant step Tuesday toward replacing computers' electrical wiring with fiber-optic links: a version of the PCI Express data pathway that uses silicon photonics.

The two companies demonstrated Optical PCIe Express (OPCIe) to split a single server into separate modules linked by a fiber-optic connection. The approach lets the machine's central Xeon processors be separated from its storage drives and its Xeon Phi co-processors to avoid overheating problems.

The demonstration used Intel silicon photonics modules to send and receive the light signals, said Intel silicon photonics marketing director Victor Krutul in a blog post. In addition, a customizable Intel chip called an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) was used to massage the PCI signals so they were suited to fiber-optic transmission rather than optical transmission,

PCI Express is fundamental to the workings of countless computers, so an optical revamp of the technology is notable even if it's only a demonstration. Although regular folks don't have much need to blow their computers up into multiple pieces, the mammoth data centers operated by companies such as Microsoft and Facebook are heavily constrained by power and cooling issues.

Optical links aren't susceptible to the electromagnetic interference that limits copper wire lengths and data-transfer speeds. For that reason, fiber-optic lines have caught on widely for long-distance data links. However, fiber-optic links remain expensive, so the shorter a data-transfer link is, the more likely it will be that copper will be shouldering the load.

"The vision of Intel Silicon Photonics is to combine the natural advantages of optical communications with the low-cost advantages of making devices out of Silicon in a CMOS fab," the same fabrication facilities that are used to manufacture conventional processors, Krutul said.

http://m.cnet.com/news/light-vs-heat-fujitsu-rebuilds-server-with-silicon-photonics/57611021

I think that's pretty cool! Let's see where it takes us!

[ViruZ_HUN]

I dont like fjitsu some way. they made great pcs before but i dont see anyone but a pc ffrom them now..

[Lord Pantaloons]

can you sleeve fiber? who would be brave/rich enough to do it?

[Hazy125]

I dont like fjitsu some way. they made great pcs before but i dont see anyone but a pc ffrom them now..

I think fujitsu make freaking fantastic air conditioners, that's something good about them.....

 

I don't think that the length that you can carry information without suffering a loss would be too much of a factor considering the small distances needed to cover(or am I completely wrong?), I think that the major concerns would be the actual fibre cable, even the 1 strand ones are relatively thick... Too thick for computer componentry at this stage, and yes I know light and stuff, but it still needs a passage otherwise it's useless and I've never seen anything adequate yet. On a positive note, that speed is more than enough to keep me interested. It should stop any sort of PCI-e saturation for quite a while yet

[Blade of Grass]

I think fujitsu make freaking fantastic air conditioners, that's something good about them.....

I don't think that the length that you can carry information without suffering a loss would be too much of a factor considering the small distances needed to cover(or am I completely wrong?), I think that the major concerns would be the actual fibre cable, even the 1 strand ones are relatively thick... Too thick for computer componentry at this stage, and yes I know light and stuff, but it still needs a passage otherwise it's useless and I've never seen anything adequate yet. On a positive note, that speed is more than enough to keep me interested. It should stop any sort of PCI-e saturation for quite a while yet

The other thing is that it would eliminate any interference between caused by the power running through.

[That Norwegian Guy]

Wow, this is either really old or some Engineers time travelled from the past.

 

Oh wait, Apple was researching this exact thing but scrapped the project when they stopped making their own internals.

[qwertywarrior]

I dont like fjitsu some way. they made great pcs before but i dont see anyone but a pc ffrom them now..

they make great super computers

[LOLPhilips]

I'd like to see where this ends up =)