46 replies to this topic

[delivi]

Quote

IBM has developed an optical transciver that can transfer data at a rate of 160GB/s, fast enough to download a High-definition movie in aount one second.

This was announced by IBM at the OFC/NFOEC Conference and Exposition in California, held during the March.

This technology was developed as a part of a program sponsered by the DARPA (Defence Advanced Reserch Projects Agency) to speed up communications between supercomputers.

Edited by delivi, 09 June 2007 - 02:40 PM.

[FolkRockFan]

I'm always amazed when we manage to increase Internet speed by any significant number. I don't know why it still impresses me - I mean, we've had high-speed Internet for years now and there have been many improvements during that time. But it's still neat to hear about what we're figuring out.

[srujanlive]

Yeah the speeds continue to increase bit by the time they reach the common man, it would be many many years..

[Striker9099]

wow that's really alot of speed! too bad in my stupid country the fastest internet we got is DSL and it's not yet available through out the whole country (it hasn't reached my city yet) so I'm still on a very slow internet connection Hopefully such technology will be available in my country because we really need these sorts of significant improvements!

[GamerGlitch]

I need a connection like that. I have an alright connection, sort of fast right now, Time Warner Cable (Road Runner), but it could always use improvement.

[dreem]

in that much speed, every one will prefer to stick on internet, for downloading. Is that kind of DSL ?

[Evil Guy]

dude that thing is fast

[Qazster]

Hmmm I believe that even though the client has that kind of speed the server would also have to have a similar amount of speed also correct?

[galexcd]

Inventing new technology to go suck high speeds does seem a bit excessive. I find humans to be rather impatient. I look back to bout 7 years ago when I had dial-up and quite a slow computer, and didn't even mind waiting, but now if I were going to use that again I'd probably destroy the computer out of frustration. Even now our connection speeds and computer speeds seem decent but I can't help but think that in 20 years we are going to wonder how we could even stand these computers we use now. This technology is quite amazing, but I think it would be better if instead of inventing new technology to go 100 times faster than what the average person has, how about work on bringing current technology to the person. If we have the technology to have a transfer rate of 160GB/s, we should be able to be making half that, and cheaply and accessible to the average internet user. I know that T1 lines can go quite fast, but those are so expensive usually only large corporations use it.

I wouldn't be surprised if houses started to come with a second dedicated line for the internet in the near future. Pretty soon the internet and the phone won't have anything to do with each other anymore. New houses will be built with a line going to a station which is owned by many major ISP's. The line remains unused until you sign up for service with the ISP then you get an extremely fast connection with a much cheaper price than a dedicated line costs nowadays.

Anyway I'm just letting my mind wander. This was a very interesting find. My mind will still be thinking about this for some time.... 160gb a second... wow...

[Will.Allison]

That is amazing. I can't wait until anything even remotely close to that becomes the standard. For todays technology, I think that the standard internet speed is pathetic. And yes, Alex you are right. The human race is extremely impatient but that does not mean we should not strive for improvements.

I stumbled upon this article where a 75-year-old woman has the fastest home internet speed at 40gbps. Even half that would be awesome if it was the standard.

The way technology is growing, I bet I will get my wish pretty soon.