Data centers and high-performance computers that perform cognitive programs, such as large-scale languages, are not limited by the computing power of their nodes. It is another issue – the amount of data they can transfer (Transfer data and multiple lights at the same time) between nodes – which depends on the “bandwidth bottleneck” that limits the performance and scalability of these current systems. The nodes of these systems can be separated by more than a kilometer.
Since metal wires propagate electrical signals as heat during high-speed data transmission, these systems transmit data through fiber optic cables. Unfortunately, a lot of energy is lost in the process of converting electrical data to optical data (and vice versa) when the signal is sent from one node to another.
In a study published today in Nature Photonics, Columbia Engineering researchers demonstrate an efficient power system to transmit large amounts of data over interconnected fiber optic cables. This new technology improves on previous attempts to transmit multiple signals simultaneously over a single fiber optic cable.
Instead of using different lasers to make each light longer, the new chip only needs one laser to create hundreds of different lights that can transmit independent data streams at the same time. A simple, efficient way to transfer data
Millimeter wave systems use a technique called wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and devices called Kerr frequency combs that take one color of light at the input and create multiple new colors of light at the output.
The critical Kerr frequency converter developed by Michal Lipson, Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor of Applied Physics, and Alexander Gaeta, David M. Rickey, a professor of applied physics and materials science and a professor of electrical engineering, allowed researchers to send clear signals through different wavelengths, wavelengths of light, and the space between them.
“We have found that these devices are a good place for optical communication, where a person can keep his own channel of information about each color of light and broadcast them over a single optical fiber,” says author Keren Bergman.
Charles Batchelor Professor of Electrical Engineering says. and Columbia Engineering. , where he is also the department head of the Columbia Nano Initiative. This improvement can allow the system to transfer more data without using more power.
The team lowered all the optics on the page by a few millimeters on each side to emit light, applied them to the electrical data, and converted the optical data back into an electrical signal at the terminal.
They designed a new photonic circuit architecture that allows each channel to transmit data independently while experiencing minimal interference with neighboring channels. This means that the signal sent in each light does not become confused and difficult to convert and translate back into electronic data for the receiver.
“In this way, our method is much more compact and energy efficient than similar methods,” says the study’s lead author, Anthony Rizzo, who led the project while a student. PhD in the Bergman lab and is currently a researcher at the US Air Force. Department of Information Laboratory Research Force.
“It is also cheap and easy to manufacture since the silicon nitride comb-generating chips can be manufactured on a standard CMOS base used to manufacture microelectronics chips instead of expensive dedicated III-V facilities.”
The compact nature of these chips allows them to communicate directly with computer hardware, reducing power consumption since electrical data signals must travel millimeters over distances of tens of centimeters.
Bergman said, “What this project demonstrates is a possible way to dramatically reduce power system power while simultaneously increasing computing power by orders of magnitude, allowing advanced intelligence tools.” growing at a scale with minimal environmental impact.
Exciting results pave the way for real world deployment
In experiments, the researchers were able to transmit 16 gigabits per second for 32 different wavelengths of light for a total bandwidth of 512 Gb/s with less than a tiny error over one trillion bits of data transferred.
These are very high levels of speed and performance. The silicon chip that transmits the data is only 4mm x 1mm, while the chip that receives the optical signal and converts it into an electrical signal is only 3mm x .
“Although we use 32 wavelength channels in the display-of-standard display, our architecture can accommodate more than 100 channels, which is well within the reach of the standard Kerr comb design.”, adds Rizzo.
These chips can be created using the same microelectronic chips found in consumer laptops or mobile phones, providing an easy way to monitor voice and input into the world at large. though. The next step in this research is to combine photonics with chip drives and electronic controls to make the process even smaller.
source: Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science.
