Record-breaking chip can transmit entire internet's traffic per second

New Atlas ^ | October 23, 2022 | By Michael Irving

[Red Badger]

The speed record for data transmission using a single light source and optical chip has been shattered once again. Engineers have transmitted data at a blistering rate of 1.84 petabits per second (Pbit/s), almost twice the global internet traffic per second.

It’s hard to overstate just how fast 1.84 Pbit/s really is. Your home internet is probably getting a few hundred megabits per second, or if you’re really lucky, you might be on a 1-gigabit or even 10-gigabit connection – but 1 petabit is a million gigabits. It’s more than 20 times faster than ESnet6, the upcoming upgrade to the scientific network used by the likes of NASA.

Even more impressive is the fact this new speed record was set using a single light source and a single optical chip. An infrared laser is beamed into a chip called a frequency comb that splits the light into hundreds of different frequencies, or colors. Data can then be encoded into the light by modulating the amplitude, phase and polarization of each of these frequencies, before recombining them into one beam and transmitting it through optical fiber.

In experiments, researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Chalmers University of Technology used the setup to transmit data at 1.84 Pbit/s, encoded in 223 wavelength channels, down a 7.9-km-long (4.9-mile) optical fiber that contained 37 separate cores. For reference, the global internet bandwidth has been estimated at just shy of 1 Pbit/s, meaning this system could potentially handle all of that at once with plenty of room to grow.

This data transmission speed greatly exceeds the previous record of 1.02 Pbit/s, which was only set in May this year. A previous optical chip design, similar to that used in the new study, managed 44 terabits per second in mid-2020.

[TalBlack]

Any word on how this chip is cooled?

[TalBlack]

Damn, Ernest Borgnine is Big Brother?

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

I can still run faster, in my new gym shoes...zzzzzzoom.

[Dr. Sivana]

Already 200TB SSDs are available.

Who has a 200 TB SSD? I can't find anything larger that 16TB. Gee, two or three of those and you have a Data Domain the size of as toaster.

[TalBlack]

Yep same credit card problem with Amazon except Amazon would only put up the homepage. We couldn’t stream anything. We figured it out but a note onscreen telling us of a billing problem would have been nice… and quicker.

[M Kehoe]

Help me here...

So you put the chip on a compatible motherboard. You get a super duper harddrive etc. You pump 220 volts into it, and my question is how do you keep it cool?

5.56mm

[SgtHooper]

Heeeeel, you can actually be rendered into the video with the kitties!

[SunkenCiv]

Wow, it even puts dial-up to shame. ;^)

[ShadowAce]

[dennisw]

“Porn... porn has been the fastest adopter of all things internet over the past 30 years.”

17 years ago or so, I read that porn was the largest stimulator for developing larger hard drives. You can buy 18TB hard drives these days. About $250. Spinning at 5400RPM I believe. Seems 7200RPM too.
_______________

WD Red Pro WD181KFGX —18TB— 7200 RPM 512MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5” Internal Hard Drive - OEM —— $349.99
https://www.newegg.com/red-pro-wd181kfgx-18tb/p/N82E16822234430?Description=18tb%20hard%20drive&cm_re=18tb_hard%20drive-_-22-234-430-_-Product&quicklink=true

[dennisw]

Lots of clever comments here. The 5-1135G7 will be good enough for me for the next ten years. MS is doing the necessary of slightly shrinking Windows, and making it more stable every year. Win 11 on all my machines. Including desktops.

[abb]

But, we also watching them. See the “First Amendment Auditors.”

[FarCenter]

These are “hero experiments”, which get you noticed at the annual Optical Fibre Conference.

[FreedomPoster]

I thought I was going to get through life without having to wrestle with Notes, then about 14 years ago I had a gig where the client was still using it. Sigh!

So I had an app ON MY DESKTOP called KillNotes. When Notes would crash, I could run KillNotes to shut down all the background cruft left behind, and then I could restart Notes. If I didn’t have KillNotes, I had to reboot the machine to get Notes going again. LOL!

[FreedomPoster]

>>“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Isaac Asimov

I’m pretty sure that was Arthur C. Clarke, not Asimov.

[wally_bert]

Notes is supposedly finally going away in a few months.

There is no support for the current version.

Other than a couple of tweaks and restarting the notes box, I’m out of ideas.

[Openurmind]

The BUS probably needs a 30 ft cooling tower... :)

[Openurmind]

And that is the question of the day. See #27. lol

[dennisw]

Arthur C. Clarke, Gay at at Wikipedia. FWYW I read his Childhood’s End in Jr High School >>>>>>>

In his biography of Stanley Kubrick, John Baxter cites Clarke’s homosexuality as a reason why he relocated, due to more tolerant laws with regard to homosexuality in Sri Lanka.[46] In 1998, the Sunday Mirror reported that he paid Sri Lankan boys for sex, leading to the cancellation of plans for Prince Charles to knight him on a visit to the country.[47][48] The accusation was subsequently found to be baseless by the Sri Lankan police.[49][50] Journalists who enquired of Clarke whether he was gay were told, “No, merely mildly cheerful.”[32] However, Michael Moorcock wrote:

Everyone knew he was gay. In the 1950s, I’d go out drinking with his boyfriend. We met his protégés, western and eastern, and their families, people who had only the most generous praise for his kindness. Self-absorbed he might be and a teetotaller, but an impeccable gent through and through.[51]

[jmcenanly]

I agree with your premise, but the quote is from Arthur C.Clarke. Asimov would have been proud to come up with it first.