1.84 petabits per second, a single-chip light source sets a new record for data transmission

Scientists from Denmark, Sweden and Japan wrote in the latest issue of the journal Nature Photonics that by dividing the data into a series of color packets, a single computer chip can pass through a fiber-optic cable, within a range of 7.9 kilometers, every second It transmits 1.84 petabits (PB) of data, setting a new record for data transmission by a single chip as a light source, which is expected to lead to chips with better performance and improve the performance of the existing Internet.

In the latest research, Asbjorn Avada Jorgensen of the Technical University of Denmark and others integrated optical components on a computer chip to divide a data stream into thousands of These data are transmitted simultaneously within the range.

To do this, the research team first used lasers to split the data stream into 37 parts, each of which was sent over a fiber-optic cable to a separate core. The data in each channel is then divided into 223 data blocks, each corresponding to a unique part of the electromagnetic spectrum, thus creating a “frequency comb.” With this “frequency comb,” data can be transmitted through fiber optic cables in different colors without interfering with each other. They refer to the latest system as a “massively parallel spatial and wavelength multiplexed data transmission” system.

Jorgensen pointed out that although scientists have previously used large-scale equipment to achieve data transmission rates of 10.66PB per second, this research has created a new record for transmitting data using a single computer chip as a light source, which is expected to lead to simple single chips that can send Much more data than existing chips, reducing energy costs and increasing bandwidth.

Jorgensen said: “The global Internet traffic is about 1 petabyte per second, and we transmit twice that amount of data per second. We transmit such a large amount of data with the help of optical cables that are basically less than one square millimeter. It shows that today’s internet connections can go much further.”

While the chip would require a laser that emits light continuously, and separate devices that encode data into each output stream, these could be integrated on the chip, making the entire device the size of a matchbox, Jorgensen said.