[url]http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=hardware&articleId=9014260&taxonomyId=12&intsrc="kc_top[/url"]

March 26, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- IBM researchers showed a prototype optical transceiver chip set Monday that they said will allow people to download movies or share online data eight times faster than current technology allows.

The chip set can move data at 160Gbit/sec. by representing information as light pulses instead of electrons and could be used for both corporate and consumer applications as soon as 2010, IBM said.

Consumer demand for digital media such as movies, music and photos has caused an explosion in the amount of data being transferred over the Internet and underlined the need for greater bandwidth and connectivity, said T.C. Chen, vice president for science and technology at IBM Research, in a statement.

IBM says it can meet that need, building its new chip set by making an optical transceiver with standard CMOS technology and combining that with optical components crafted from exotic materials such as indium phosphide and gallium arsenide. The resulting package is just 3.25 mm by 5.25 mm in size, small enough to be integrated onto a printed circuit board.

When it does arrive, the part could have an immediate impact on applications from computing to communications and entertainment. A PC using that board would be able to reduce the download time of a typical high-definition feature-length movie from 30 minutes to one second, the company said.

This will be enough bandwidth to have cameras to watch you on every car, in every room of everyhouse, and on every telephone pole, every street light pole, etc, etc.

They have already begun to hook up all the security cameras in Walmart, Target, etc, to the Department of HOmeland Security, so they can see people shopping at Walmart, use their facial recognition bullshit and all that.