NOT A Chip Off The Old Block!

A few days ago InstaPundit linked to an article, IBM Unveils Nanophotonic Chips that Could Lead the Exascale Computing Revolution. IBM, the article predicted,

is prepped to lead the way into the next era of exascale computing, at least if the technology they showed off at a convention today in Chiba, Japan can live up to expectations. Today IBM lifted the veil on its CMOS Integrated Silicon Nanophotonics (CISN) technology at Semicon Japan, saying its next-gen silicon chips that communicate via pulses of light, rather than electrical signals, will be commercially available starting next year.

“How does one create a chip that executes one million trillion operations per second?” it asked.

Switch from copper to light. Chips that communicate over optical interconnects rather than electron swapping connections can perform much faster. And the more optical connections you have, the better. That’s why IBM is currently expanding its manufacturing capacity (some of which is licensed to other companies) in order to produce the nanophotonic chips in large quantities. The company predicts CISN technology will ship next year, but in the next five years it’s due for an evolution: It’ll go from simply connecting systems to connecting boards in the same system and eventually to connecting cores on the same microprocessor.

Also on December 1 the Wall Street Journal reported (“IBM Claims Breakthrough in Laser-Based Chips”) that the “race to transform computers with laser-based communications is accelerating, with International Business Machines Corp. the latest to claim breakthroughs in chips that send data at blazing speeds using pulses of light.”

I mention these articles not to reveal some long- (and well-) hidden expertise in technology but because they relate to the continuing ascent of daughter Jessie, last described here (and pictured here). She received her PhD in Applied Physics from Caltech last December (a few weeks after her 23rd birthday) and became a postdoc at IBM’s Watson Research Center the end of March. Several weeks ago, after being at IBM only 7 months, she was offered a regular research staff position — unusually fast for IBM, where most postdocs serve for two years, sometimes three, and not all are offered staff positions. (Helene and I are, as you can tell, disgustingly proud, but we’ve retained enough humility to tell Jessie when we heard her latest news that we couldn’t have done it without her.)

You will have guessed by now (and if not, you will have guessed that I’m about to tell you) that Jessie is the newest regular staff member (joining 6 or 7 guys) of the research group at IBM working to develop the nanophotonic chip.

I can assure you that she is definitely NOT a chip off the old block.

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