Here is what Smarter Technologies says about silicon photonics: Intel promises to revolutionize communications everywhere from data centers to home networks with a cheap fiber-optic technology that casts photonic devices into cheap silicon chips. Within five years, Intel promises to obsolete copper wires for most communications applications...Today, most communications are carried by copper wires, even though fiber optics are smaller, lighter, faster and higher-speed. The problem is that converting electronic signals to and from optical signals is expensive, since converters require expensive photonic devices using exotic materials like indium gallium arsenide. Now Intel claims to have found a way to create photonic devices that compute with light using the cheap, plentiful silicon techniques it uses to create normal processor chips. Within five years, Intel promises to obsolete copper wires for most communications applications...
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