# IBM's breakthrough chip technology lights the path to exascale computing



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

IBM's breakthrough chip technology lights the path to exascale computing.



> *IBM scientists today unveiled a new chip technology that integrates electrical and optical devices on the same piece of silicon, enabling computer chips to communicate using pulses of light (instead of electrical signals), resulting in smaller, faster and more power-efficient chips than is possible with conventional technologies.*
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-- Tom


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

Isn't that what GPU's are doing now?


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi Mike,

I don't think that GPU's have merged the photon part w/the silicon part. However, if you meant aggregating a lot of GPU clusters together to bump up the performance to get near/exoscale then yes, but not without the power cost that IBM's approach improves.

-- Tom


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

Thanks Tom...Interesting stuff...:up:


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## peck1234 (Aug 27, 2008)

Very nice... 

These chips run cooler I assume?


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi peck1234,

I would assume that is part of the equation to use a lesser amount of energy.

-- Tom


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