Intel's New Fibre Optic Cables To Offer Data Transfer At 800 Gigabit Per Second

World over the Internet speeds are getting ever faster, but it wouldn't make much of a difference unless servers and other networking gear are ready to support it. Tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon are reinventing the modern data centers and companies like Intel are willing to give them a helping hand.

Global technology superpower Intel has announced that it will begin commercial production of its 800 gigabit per second optical network cables. The new cable is based on technology developed in its Silicon Photonics lab. Traditionally companies like Google use fiber optics to transfer data over long distances, but inside its server farms information moves through traditional copper cables.

Companies are looking at ways to power servers with the same processors that are found in your smartphones, and save information on thousands of BluRay discs as opposed to expensive and power consuming hard drives. Different applications are being spread across various servers, which is more cost effective than investing on a super computer. However, this method can sometimes bottlenecks the information transfer between machines. This is exactly where Intel's optical data cables come in, helping various servers communicate with each other much more efficiently compared to traditional copper cables. Optical fibre has become the norm of data transfer over long distances, and many ISPs have even started offering direct fibre-to-home services, however their use in data centres has lagged behind.

"The biggest hurdle to higher optical connections has been cost," says Victor Krutul, marketing director of Intel's Silicon Photonics Solutions Group, in a Wired report. He added that the new technology has been engineered with costs in mind, but did not disclose the price for such equipment or tentative shipping dates.

Facebook already uses Intel spec server racks and other networking gear that is already optical ready. The company could become Intel's first customer for ultra high-speed data cables which could spark off a revolution all over the technology world.


source wireworld