An optical chip the size of a fingernail has enabled Australian researchers to set new optical data rate records on the country’s National Broadband Network (NBN).
The raw data rate of 44.2Tbps over conventional optical cable is about three times the data rate for the entire NBN network and about 100 times the speed of any single device currently used on the network, the researchers say.
While the technology is meant for metro-area networks and data centers, those bit rates would support downloads of 1,000 movies in less than a second.
