TI Chip Uses Light, Not Electrons: Texas...

TI Chip Uses Light, Not Electrons: Texas Instruments Inc. announced the development of a computer chip that uses light instead of electrons and wire to transmit information, an advance that could dramatically increase the speed of computers. Texas Instruments calls the chip an optoelectronic integrated circuit, or OEIC. Its high-speed optical connections can be packed on a circuit board more densely than the copper wires and traces that carry signals from chips now, and they use less power. Space and power reductions typically result in lower costs for computers.