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On-chip optical link is created on electronic chip for the first time

https://www.laserfocusworld.com/…/on-chip-optical-link-is-c…


Researchers of the University of Twente (UT; Enschede, Netherlands) have, for the first time, succeeded in connecting two parts of an electronic chip using an on-chip optical link, all fabricable with standard CMOS technology — a long-sought-after goal, as intrachip connection via light is almost instantaneous and also provides electrical isolation. Such a connection can, for example, be a safe way of connecting high-power electronics and digital control circuitry on a single chip without a direct electrical link. Vishal Agarwal, a UT PhD student, created a very small optocoupler circuit that delivers a data rate of megabits per second in an energy-efficient way.

Toward unhackable communication: Single particles of light could bring the ‘quantum internet’

Hacker attacks on everything from social media accounts to government files could be largely prevented by the advent of quantum communication, which would use particles of light called “photons” to secure information rather than a crackable code.


Using light to send information is a game of probability: Transmitting one bit of information can take multiple attempts. The more photons a light source can generate per second, the faster the rate of successful information transmission.

“A source might generate a lot of photons per second, but only a few of them may actually be used to transmit information, which strongly limits the speed of quantum communication,” Bogdanov said.

For faster quantum communication, Purdue researchers modified the way in which a light pulse from a laser beam excites electrons in a man-made “defect,” or local disturbance in a crystal lattice, and then how this defect emits one photon at a time.

Quantum Communication Just Took a Great Leap Forward

Researchers in the field of quantum communication have recently made great strides, taking us closer to a perfectly secure method of communication.

For years, researchers struggled to find ways to amplify quantum signals, store large amounts of quantum data, and allow for more than two nodes in a quantum network. However, in the last two months, solutions to all three of these problems have been found using the bizarre properties of the quantum world, in particular quantum entanglement.

Now that these hurdles have been overcome, quantum networks and even a quantum internet seem like real possibilities.

Should We Replace Ourselves? | Zoltan Istvan vs. JFG, TPS #257

I was in a really interesting 1-hour debate yesterday with Jean-Francois Gariépy who runs a well-known YouTube channel The Public Space, sometimes associated with the Alt-Right. We discussed #transhumanism. I think the debate caught a lot of people by surprise. While I believe in and embrace total diversity, I despise the oppression of human biology and death, and advocate for any means possible to overcome it—including genetic modification and merging with machines. The debate makes me look like the aggressor. But it only proves what I’ve always said, that issues of race and traditional cultural bigotry are minor compared to the issues of humanity battling aging and death itself. All of us are currently in a war to not die:


An important debate on whether or not humanity should play with their own genes. Guest: Zoltan Istvan, transhumanist.

Zoltan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zoltan_istvan
Zoltan on the Web: http://www.zoltanistvan.com/

The Transhumanist Wager by Zoltan Istvan: http://www.zoltanistvan.com/TranshumanistWager.html

JF’s book, The Revolutionary Phenotype, is out!

Amazon’s Homegrown Chips Threaten Silicon Valley Giant Intel

In recent years, Google has designed specialized chips for artificial intelligence technology. Facebook and Microsoft, which like most internet companies are major buyers of chips from Intel, have indicated that they are working on similar A.I. chips.


The retailer is now making its own server chips. It’s the latest sign that big internet outfits are willing to cut out longtime suppliers.

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