Infinera's optical routing gear is built around an all-in-one optical networking chip--which it calls a Photonic Integrated Circuit--that shrinks down the work done by a hodgepodge of parts in boxes from other vendors onto a pair of chips smaller than a fingernail.

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It's this separation of layers and horizontal flow of current that gives OLET its efficiency and it's believed that it could not only be used for (next) next-generation displays but also for on-chip optical interconnects.

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These speeds are possible because the optical components on same chip as the processors.

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That would allow electronic data to be converted easily into optical data within the confines of a chip, so helping Moore's whiggish interpretation of the future of computing to continue to come true.

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Rather, TRW is working with Nortel Networks to build signal-splitting chip sets fast enough to eliminate bottlenecks on the next generation of long-distance optical telecom networks.

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All-optical switches use micromirrors, which were originally developed to bounce laser beams around the surface of a silicon chip.

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