This
article is somewhat personal to me, as I'm currently using a Dell Lattitude
D520 Laptop that gets pretty hot. I know I have to eventually pop her open and
clean the fan as explained in my Geezam blog
article “Tips
and Tricks on how to make your computer run faster” but I'm somewhat of a procrastinator.
So
when I read about a research team from Stanford University that has figured out
a way to miniaturize Fiber Optic Cables to be used inside of a Laptop as
reported in the article
“Breakthrough
brings optical Data transport closer to replacing wires”, published May 28
2015, Physorg, I was beside myself with
excitement.
Their
research, led by Stanford graduate student Alexander Piggott, was published in
Nature Photonics Journal. Again, a lot of PhD’s riding on this wagon, so here's
yet another long list:
1.
Stanford electrical engineer Dr. Jelena
Vuckovic
2.
Graduate student and Google employee
Jesse Lu
3.
Graduate student Jan Petykiewicz
4.
Postdoctoral Stanford student Thomas
Babinec
5.
Postdoctoral Stanford student Konstantinos Lagoudakis
What
their research yielded was a method of creating Fiber Optic Data circuits using
silica glass to replace the copper and gold wires used in the making of
motherboards in laptops and computers. Because they are made from silica glass
and not wires, they are not prone to the heating effect normally seen in your
traditional computer.
Best
of all, silica glass naturally refracts IR (infrared) light, the same frequency
of light that is used by Fiber Optic Data Transmission systems. Thus, if you
could replace the Bus on a computer motherboard, you could eliminate the need
to do optical-to-electrical conversion, at least until you reach the Processor.
So
how did the Stanford research team shrink the tried and trusted Fiber Optics
system that is the basis of modern telecommunications to fit into a computer?
And can this potentially be the
Optical
computer I've long dreamed in my blog
article entitled “IBM
develops 25Gbps Photonic Optical Processor at the 90nm level - IBM's Red Dawn
(2012) for Optical Processors”?
Stanford University
Researcher develop Fiber Optic Motherboard Bus – Cool Running’s for Computers
The
research conducted by the team was actually the continuation of previous work
done by Professor Jelena Vuckovic
with Professor David Miller years prior.
Acting
as a guide to Stanford graduate student Alexander Piggott, her previous
research foray into computers revealed that as much as 80% of the power wastage
in terms of heat loss was not from the Processor but from the motherboards,
quote: “Several years ago, my colleague David Miller carefully analyzed power
consumption in computers, and the results were striking. Up to 80 percent of
the microprocessor power is consumed by sending Data over the wires so called
interconnects”.
“Wow”
was my first reaction reading article, as I'd always assumed it was the Processor
drinking up all that power.
That
idea has been reinforced while at MICO
College University while doing my Diploma in Professional Studies, as I
often have to pop over into the Computer Lab at the e-Learning or at the MICO
University Library. Whenever I use a computer, I notice that the computers make
an awful lot of noise, almost like an airplane about to take off.
I've
always assumed it was the Processor cranking up and needing all that cooling to
keep it functioning, as I've had similar problem with my Gaming rig back home
in Milk River, Clarendon, which is also noisy despite my best attempts at
optimization. However, my computer has a
steady fan noise, not an ever increasing hum akin to an airplane taking off as
I’d observer with computers at MICO
College University, as the fan in my personal PC is rather large.
Up
until now I thought the solution lied in improving the cooling technology used
in computers using liquid cooling techniques, such as UAH's (University of
Alabama in Huntsville)
Fluorinert
FC-72 Passive Cooling System as described in my blog
article entitled “UAH
Graduate Students use 3M's Fluorinert FC-72 in Passive Cooling System – Gaming
Rigs and Data Centers Noiseless Cooling Systemss upgrade”.
More
exotic solutions such as using CNT’s (Carbon Nanotubes) and room temperature superconductors
made from Group 4 Elements as described in my blog
article entitled “@UTAustin
at Austin develops Silicene Transistors - How to grow Silicene and Group 4
Super-conducting Processors and Batteries on Silver Spoon”.
But
they’d still require cooling. A computer Motherboard with the Data Bus based on
Fiber Optics, on the other hand, is inherently cool running as it’s not
electricity heating up copper and gold connectors and traces but IR (Infrared
Light) in silica glass fibers!
Stanford University’s Inverse
Design Algorithm – Microscopic Fiber Optic components for Optical Computer
Their
idea was to replace those copper and gold connectors and traces used in the
Motherboard's Bus to interconnect the various components that the Processor
communicates with silica glass based Fiber Optic cables. Most likely, these
electrical circuit components that process Data i.e. Processors, Memory,
Hard-drive, would sit in or connect via a special socket that does the optical-to-electrical
conversion.
This
would allow the TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic) and MosFet based processors
and components to work, with capacitors, resistors and inductors still needing basic
electrical connections.
By
replacing the Motherboard Data Bus with a Fiber Optic Network, it makes the computer
run cooler and connect to Fiber Optic Internet the need for optical-to-electrical
conversion. A Fiber Optic Motherboard
Bus also allows you to multiplex more Data into fewer Data pathways, making
such a computer more efficient and powerful to quote Stanford graduate student
Alexander Piggott: “Optical transport uses far less energy than sending
electrons through wires. For chipscale links, light can carry more than 20
times as much Data”.
To
create these Fiber Optic circuits to replace the Motherboard Data Bus, they
created a computer program which they dubbed the Inverse Design Algorithm. It's
basically like a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) software program, similar to those
you can find online.
But
their program is more advanced, as it takes into consideration the properties
of silica glass as it relates to its ability to refract IR light to design
circuit analogs to switches, multiplexers and amplifiers, but specifically
geared at manipulating IR light.
Interestingly
too, the circuit it designs are microscopic in scale, with circuits so small
that twenty (20) of them would make up the width of a human hair.
The
PCB diagrams made by the Inverse Design Algorithm are then etched out using
their laboratory fabrication facility, albeit not to a high level of precision
to quote Stanford graduate student Alexander Piggott: “Our manufacturing
processes are not nearly as precise as those at commercial fabrication plants.
The fact that we could build devices this robust on our equipment tells us that
this technology will be easy to massproduce at stateoftheart facilities”.
Because
these structures, made of silica are to be connected to silica glass traces,
most likely they'll be encased in epoxy or some other type of cladding like
traditional Fiber Optic cables used in Telecoms so as to reduce refractive
losses.
Optical Computer with
CNT Processors – Fanless Computers designed by Artificial Intelligence
The
designs that the Inverse Design Algorithm comes up with are beautifully and
visually stunning, but are geared towards creating circuits equivalent in
function to their analog counterparts by manipulating the refraction of IR
light, to quote Dr. Jelena Vuckovic: “Our structures look like Swiss cheese but
they work better than anything we've seen before”.
So
it won't be too long before AI (Artificial Intelligent) programs are cooking
our food too as predicted in my blog
article entitled “US$15,000
Moley Robotics Cooking Robot – Cooking Robot seeking Taste for Human Food to
take over in 2017”.
Hopefully,
this all means that the CNT (Carbon Nanbotube) Processor that Standard
University has been working on as far back a September 2013 as described in my blog article
entitled “University
of Stanford Designs a Proof-of-concept Processor using Carbon Nanotubes -
Practical option to expand Moore’s Law along with Optical, Quantum and Neural
Net Processors” now finally has some optical Pathways to efficiently
process Data and interface directly with the Fiber Optic Communications
standards used in Telecommunications today.
The
potential of this breakthrough Inverse Design Algorithm is huge, as it can be
used to design all types of Optical communications systems based on Fiber Optics.
Not only does it eliminates the need to do optical-to-electrical conversion to
connect to Fiber Optic based Internet, at least until you reach the Processor,
but it also makes the computer run cooler, more efficient and potentially
faster!
Inverse
Design Algorithm ties in automation into the design of circuits, which made the
manufacturing of telecommunications gear by Telecom Equiptment suppliers
achieve economy-of-scale much faster by giving the work to machines instead of
humans. If this is how Optical fanless computers will come to pass, then I’m
all for it!
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