IBM Connects CPU Multi-cores with Light Signals: "Notebooks Will Be Transformed into Supercomputers"

IBM is currently researching a new technology that reportedly will allow multiple cores within a single processor to be connected using light signals rather than traditional electrical signals.

In a paper published in *Optics Express*, researchers from IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center described the future of processors: the device, known as a silicon Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator, converts electrical signals into optical pulses. The technical highlight of this advancement is that IBM’s electro-optic modulator is 100 times smaller than those used in other labs today. IBM's ultimate goal is to...