I’ve been waiting for computing and laser technology to merge ever since reading about it in Michio Kaku’s book, Visions. It’s one thing to read the theory from a noted physicist like Dr. Kaku but it’s another to read about its development. Intel and University of California, Santa Barbara have developed the first laser CPU. Ever heard of an industry called Photonics? It will soon advance computing and data transmission speeds beyond what we thought possible. This laser emitting processor will be able to communicate with other chips inside a system that will free up many of the conventional bottlenecks in computing.

We use lasers for data transmission all the time right now. We send vast amounts of data at high speeds over incredibly long distances through fiber optic cables. But all that data is slowed to a comparitive crawl when it reaches the CPU inside your computer, which is forced to use traditional wires and circuit trace to communicate with other chips. Laser communications between chips frees up huge overhead and has significant implications for the architecture of a home computer. It gets even deeper when you consider the significance this technology will have on data centers and digital service providers of every ilk. It will cause engineers to rethink how they design computers. Computer processing speeds will be off the charts by today’s standards. Developers will be free to explore parallel processing to a degree unimaginable by today’s standards.

Another huge advantage is cost! Chips communicating with each other through light results in freeing up costs attributed to the hardware linking chips in any system. Computers that have more power than ever thought possible, and that cost way less than anything we now have, is exactly the kind of significant technological development that will drive the industry forward. And I thought Intel had stopped innovating - good job Intel and UofC.

This breakthrough occurred when researchers developed a certain layer of light-emitting indium phosphide that could bond with a standard silicone chip. The chip can control channels of light waves to communicate with other chips. The laser chip would have thousands of tiny lasers being switched by the chip itself. It’s simply amazing stuff that will bring us closer to that techno-utopian vision of universal communication in world interconnected by cheap computing devices. Just watch out for the Klingons.