Light peak opticables: transfering data at 10 gigabits per second

Light peak will be the first opticable promising to transfer data at 10 gigabits per secound.

Future versions will be able to transfer data at 40 and 100 gigabits per second as the manufacturing process becomes cheaper. It will be ships into market by 2010.

For transferring multiple types of data simultaneously, only a single Light peak cables will required, for an instance, transferring data to hard drive, connecting to the internet and transferring video.

Each end of the Light Peak cable will be connected to chips that contain light producing devices, encode data, and transmit data. The chips will also amplify data and convert the light to electrical signals.

Researchers are trying to replace copper wires with silicon photonics on motherboards and microprocessor in order to reduce the expensiveness of high-bandwidth connectors cheaper

The first generation of Light Peak cables will use the same type of optical chips used in telecommunication devices today. Intel will be able to drive down the cost of these chips because the manufacturing standards are less stringent.

The lasers and detectors inside the chips are not required to be high performing. The chips don’t need to transmit data over great distances as required in the telecommunication industry.

Intel is currently working with other companies to form partnerships. Sony is supportive of Intel’s Light Peak technology, with more announcements coming.

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