In a development that brings closer superfast channels for its mainframes and the ability to run physically dispersed systems in single image, IBM reports that its scientists have demonstrated two experimental chips for transmitting and receiving data over fibre optic lines at speeds of 1G-bits per second – that’s 125M bits per second, the sort of speed that IBM has been talking about for future channels. The designers believe that the receiver chip is the densest optoelectronic chip ever reported. The receiver holds 8,000 transistors in geometries down to 1 micron, which is 50 times more optical and electronic components than ever previously assembled on an optoelectronic chip, IBM claims. The parts are fabricated in Gallium Arsenide and integrate optical, data transmission and data conditioning functions in single chips. A GaAs injection laser array that uses quantum well technology is used to create the light pulses. Such quantum-well devices make use of the unusual behaviour of electrons confined in extremely thin semiconductor layers to generate light pulses efficiently.
