Ironically, as one kind of chip enables the creation of huge volumes of data, other smart chips are needed to help increase the speed of the system and direct the flow of that data.

FORBES: Bridging The Data Deluge Gap

On Thursday, Colt Telecom announced it had been awarded the multi-million pound contract to provide the high-speed data network that will make the system possible.

BBC: Colt gets London car toll contract

Two important metrics are latency (trader lingo for speed) and throughput (the amount of data a system can carry per second).

FORBES: Picking The Fastest Black Boxes

With a data transfer speed of up to 1600 Mbps, it provides optimal overall system performance to mobile device users including supporting full HD video content in real-time.

ENGADGET: Samsung bringing 85-inch ultra high definition TV to CES HD

Elsewhere, Arista Networks, which is rich in Cisco talent, has just announced a new data center operating system that will challenge the incumbents with its speed and simplicity.

FORBES: Cisco Shakeup: Speed And Time For Margins

Tim Critchley, one of the founders of Pogo Technology, said this system meant data flies around at the equivalent of 50kbps - almost the same speed as the fastest computer modems.

BBC: Pogo to the future

Since the primary waves travel more quickly than the comparatively sluggish secondary waves, the system picks up on the magnitude and speed at which the quake is approaching, and beams the data over fiber optic networks to emergency relay stations setup in corporate towers, governmental buildings, hospitals, and transportation venues such as railways.

ENGADGET: Japan Meteorological Agency develops earthquake warning system