Why does Intel even discuss these things? Can I buy this? Can I go out and buy products that use this standard? Can I buy PCs that use AMD CPUs that use this? What about ARMs? What about Infiniband-like networks?
It makes me angry that a large corporation set out on a Tuesday morning with the sole purpose to waste people's time like this. If it is not going to be on store shelves within the next few months and if it doesn't have broad industry support: NO ONE CARES.
This is why Thunderbolt has been a failure: they talked about it for over two years and the final version is Intel-only, effectively Mac only (very few non-Apple PCs have it, and it seems most of them were bought just to be Hackintoshes), and not nearly as awesome as what they originally described; and AMD, Texas Instruments, VIA, and several other VESA members added a USB3-over-DisplayPort feature called DockPort because Intel refuses to license and standardize Thunderbolt.
You can downvote me if you want, but I imagine at least half of us have been thinking this and someone had to just come out and say it: advertise your product when I can buy it, otherwise it just looks like you're trying to pimp your stock to investors.
> because Intel refuses to license and standardize Thunderbolt.
Openness is definitely a big issue, and technical advantages may not be able to overcome proprietariness and cost. It's similar to what happened with Firewire (1394) and USB. The former has many technical advantages, but the official standards are not free. The latter is simpler and slower, with freely available standards, and as a result it has become ubiquitous.
Intel has a habit of putting out PR that mixes stuff that is available now, stuff that will be shipping this year, and stuff that may or may not be shipping five years from now. The press loves it but it's annoying and confusing to us technical people. (Whatever you do, do not pay any attention to "rack scale architecture".)
When it comes to silicon photonics specifically, Intel has been talking about it for years and still hasn't shipped anything.
If ^this^ is not FUD, I don't know what FUD is. Textbook example.
Seriously, all this post is about is: let's add a layer of confusion and fear on a technological advance. "waste people's time" - haha, nobody forced you to spent time on this. "not being on AMD CPUs, only on Intel Macbooks " - This is a press release about something working in the lab, let's not have anybody announce anything they got in the lab because I can't buy it.
First, the headline number comes from 64 25gbps fibers in parallel.
I found more interesting this little bit buried in the bottom quarter of the article…
Intel is proposing an Optical PCI-Express (OPCI) protocol for use on optical wires.
I cant find this protocol, or any clarification if it is an open protocol. The article kind of feels like it is protocol intended for widespread adoption.
Cost effective, space effective optical connections would be nice. (No pricing in article. Not terribly encouraging hints.) A clean, open, PCIe protocol for fiber would be huge.
I presume that over the next decade(s), Cu may be phased out and replaced by Fibre on a large scale for information transfer purposes.
I do wonder about the effects on our environment though, namely wether making copper (metal) or Fibre cables (plastics) produces more waste, uses more or less energy and which one's easier to recycle, and to what degree.
Most of the high speed connection (10GigE+) for the last 3+ years have already been fiber, and anything longer than 100m is always fiber - it's pretty rare to see copper used for anything faster than 1 Gig connections.
Naïvely, glass is made from sand and copper is mined. And I can already recycle glass from my house, but not copper. So it looks like an environmental win to me. There may be something I'm missing.
The ability to take my memory and stash it a rack away, optical can enable that
In optical fiber, at a minimum, every 3.3cm is another clock cycle of delay. (210^8 m/s / 3GHz / 2) (speed of propagation in optical fiber / clock rate / round trip factor).
That being said, being able to have hard drives* in other racks would be great, if nothing else just for vibration concerns.
DiabloD3|12 years ago
It makes me angry that a large corporation set out on a Tuesday morning with the sole purpose to waste people's time like this. If it is not going to be on store shelves within the next few months and if it doesn't have broad industry support: NO ONE CARES.
This is why Thunderbolt has been a failure: they talked about it for over two years and the final version is Intel-only, effectively Mac only (very few non-Apple PCs have it, and it seems most of them were bought just to be Hackintoshes), and not nearly as awesome as what they originally described; and AMD, Texas Instruments, VIA, and several other VESA members added a USB3-over-DisplayPort feature called DockPort because Intel refuses to license and standardize Thunderbolt.
You can downvote me if you want, but I imagine at least half of us have been thinking this and someone had to just come out and say it: advertise your product when I can buy it, otherwise it just looks like you're trying to pimp your stock to investors.
AlisdairO|12 years ago
userbinator|12 years ago
Openness is definitely a big issue, and technical advantages may not be able to overcome proprietariness and cost. It's similar to what happened with Firewire (1394) and USB. The former has many technical advantages, but the official standards are not free. The latter is simpler and slower, with freely available standards, and as a result it has become ubiquitous.
wmf|12 years ago
When it comes to silicon photonics specifically, Intel has been talking about it for years and still hasn't shipped anything.
ddalex|12 years ago
Seriously, all this post is about is: let's add a layer of confusion and fear on a technological advance. "waste people's time" - haha, nobody forced you to spent time on this. "not being on AMD CPUs, only on Intel Macbooks " - This is a press release about something working in the lab, let's not have anybody announce anything they got in the lab because I can't buy it.
Driving confusion much, are we now ?
jws|12 years ago
I found more interesting this little bit buried in the bottom quarter of the article…
Intel is proposing an Optical PCI-Express (OPCI) protocol for use on optical wires.
I cant find this protocol, or any clarification if it is an open protocol. The article kind of feels like it is protocol intended for widespread adoption.
Cost effective, space effective optical connections would be nice. (No pricing in article. Not terribly encouraging hints.) A clean, open, PCIe protocol for fiber would be huge.
roeme|12 years ago
I do wonder about the effects on our environment though, namely wether making copper (metal) or Fibre cables (plastics) produces more waste, uses more or less energy and which one's easier to recycle, and to what degree.
ghshephard|12 years ago
davidad_|12 years ago
mariusz79|12 years ago
TheLoneWolfling|12 years ago
In optical fiber, at a minimum, every 3.3cm is another clock cycle of delay. (210^8 m/s / 3GHz / 2) (speed of propagation in optical fiber / clock rate / round trip factor).
That being said, being able to have hard drives* in other racks would be great, if nothing else just for vibration concerns.