Scientists from the University of Denmark have achieved a new record in data transfer, 1.84 petabits per second via fiber optic cable and using a single computer chip. To put the data into perspective, if this research were to take place in the real world, it would allow 230 million photos to be downloaded in one second.

Improving data transfer speeds is critical to the future needs of the Internet and all its services. Take current streaming services or cloud gaming services as an example. And let’s not even mention the cloud business applications in data centers and large networks or what will come from the Metaverse and it will require huge performance.

Data transfer recording: light is the key

Silicon photonics technologies aim to be a solution in the movement of digital data. For this research we used a photonic chip, a microchip containing two or more photonic components that form a functional circuit. This technology detects, generates, transmits and processes light to split the data stream into thousands of separate channels and transmit them all at once over a distance of 7.9 kilometers.

First, the team split the data stream into 37 sections, each sent by a separate fiber optic cable core. Each of these channels was subsequently divided into 223 data that existed in individual segments of the electromagnetic spectrum. This “frequency comb” of equidistant light peaks across the spectrum allows data in different colors to be transmitted simultaneously without interfering with each other, greatly increasing the capacity of each core.

In the past, researchers have achieved data transfer speeds of up to 10.66 petabits per second, but they were created using bulky, inefficient and impractical devices. This new and improved research sets a record for transmission using a single computer chip as a light source. This technology could significantly reduce energy costs and drastically increase bandwidth.

The chip is not complete yet. You need a laser and a device to encode the data in each of the output streams. However, the researchers say that both elements could be integrated into a single chip with a total size of about a matchbox, which is very practical in real commercial applications.

Since there is currently no computer capable of providing or receiving the record 1.84 petabits per second, the team had to pass “dummy data” through all channels and experiment with the output of one channel at a time to make sure everything was sent and correctly loaded. Nevertheless, scientists believe that this line of research is the way forward, it can forever change the way we consume data and how we perform all kinds of computing tasks around them.