Aussie science to make net 100 times faster

[Phred42]

But at what price - and how priced? Tier?


Aussie science to make net 100 times faster
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23997209-2,00.html

COMPUTER users frustrated by slow internet connections could soon be surfing the web 100 times faster, all thanks to new Australian technology.

University of Sydney scientists say they have developed a new technology that could speed up the internet - and not cost users an extra cent.

Described as "a small scratch on a piece of glass'', the university's photonic integrated circuit boosts the performance of traditional optic fibres, Professor Ben Eggleton said.

"This circuit uses the 'scratch' as a guide or a switching a path for information - kind of like when trains are switched from one track to another - except this switch takes one picosecond to change tracks,'' Prof Eggleton said of the technology developed over the past four years.

"This means that in one second the switch is turning on and off about one million times.''

"Currently we use electronics for our switching and that has been OK, but as we move toward a more tech-savvy future there is a demand for instant web gratification.''

[depakid]

1. Necessity is the mother of invention

After years of John Howard, broadband in Oz is a disgrace.

[opihimoimoi]

2. I wish our society would evolve as rapid as our tech world...maybe we would have PEACE

[A-Schwarzenegger]

3. I told everybody about the picosecond switching scratch way way back.

Nobody would listen.

[TZ]

4. The article says that it would NOT cost anymore than

the current technology. And please note that a lot of technology gets cheaper after its been around for awhile...Broadband will probably start dropping in price with a new type of competition.

[Hugabear]

14. ROTFLMAO - Do you honestly, really believe that?

"Broadband will probably start dropping in price"

Maybe in other parts of the world, but not here in the good old US of A. Nosiree, the big telecom companies will just keep finding excuses to keep prices artificially high.

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. The 'optic fiber' part is where most of the US is missing infrastructure.

as compared to the rest of the industrialized world.

http://www.newnetworks.com/failedfiberstates.htm

[n2doc]

6. Great! Just in time for that Blu-ray porn movie download! n/t

[Speck Tater]

7. Media gets it wrong again. A picosecond is NOT one million times per second as stated.

One million switches per second is a microsecond, not a picosecond. Present day Pentiums are already thousands of times faster than one million switches per second.

A picosecond is one millionth of a millionth of a second.

That's one million million switches per second.

Of course, the Ignorant American won't catch this humongous error in the article.

[IDemo]

8. The switching speed doesn't necessarily equal the clock frequency

They are likely referring to the rise time, or the time required to transition from a logic-low to logic high (say, zero to 3.3 volts, for instance). The picture below shows that it doesn't occur instantaneously. The actual clock frequency depends on the pulse width, represented by the horizontal traces in the scope picture:

Still, it is highly likely the device is capable of greater than one megahertz speeds. :)

[Speck Tater]

10. Ummm. Retired engineer, and ham radio operator here.

Even accounting for rise time, and and ringing or transient settling time involved, they are still off by many orders of magnitude. What the article said is roughly equivalent, in orders of magnitude, to saying that Manhattan is roughly 15 feet from Los Angeles, as the crow flies.

Rise time can't possibly account for an error that huge.

[IDemo]

11. Electronics test tech, R&D lab , many years

I think the engineer quoted in the article simply misspoke when he went directly from "this switch takes one picosecond to change tracks" to "this means that in one second the switch is turning on and off about one million times'', when it means no such thing, even when including math errors. The frequency itself is dependent on other circuit parameters, not just the active device. It appears to be his mistake, not the reporter's, if the quotes weren't misplaced.

Because this device is capable of such rapid edges doesn't necessarily mean it must or even will be used in a 1000 Ghz circuit.

[Canuckistanian]

16. BW=0.35/tr

So, by my calculations, bandwidth is 350GHz with a rise time of 1ps.

[Igel]

15. Nor, presumably, the "Ignorant Australian".

The target audience for the article is, after all, Aussie.

[SpiralHawk]

9. "We don't 'believe' in fact-based lib-rul science." - Republicon Know Nothing Party

"So take this fairy tale and put it with your global climate change claptrap."

- Republicon Know Nothing Party

[TransitJohn]

12. Sweet....now my porn will load faster.

n/t

[Speck Tater]

13. Doh! One of those "I coulda had a V-8" moments.

What am I doing here on DU when I could be downloading porn? What WAS I thinking?