Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!leah!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!MATHOM.GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU!lindsay
From: lindsay@MATHOM.GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU (Donald Lindsay)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: fiber
Keywords: breakthroughs refrigerators
Message-ID: <4496@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 14 Mar 89 15:44:38 GMT
References: <4387@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <13288@steinmetz.ge.com> <4409@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <11020@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 25

In article <11020@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> muir@postgres.Berkeley.EDU (David Muir Sharnoff) writes:
>In article <4409@pt.cs.cmu.edu> lindsay@MATHOM.GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU (Donald Lindsay) writes:
>>(The single-mode optic fibers that are in
>>the ground right now, have an intrinsic bandwidth of 35,000 gigahertz,
>>in the IR window alone.
>
>Correct me if I'm wrong, but does this mean that you could store ~100GB
>in a 3000 mile fiber loop?


Great idea!

Of course, 3000 miles of fiber is about enough to squash my desk flat.
Perhaps I should get a DARPA grant to develop a high-strength desk.

There is also a minor, temporary problem with the emitters and
receivers.  Our fiber-making technology is currently about three orders
of magnitude ahead of our fiber-using technology. 

Luckily, laser technology is still advancing quickly. (For example,
Sagnac-effect devices have improved by six orders of magnitude in the
last ten years.) Do I  have a little list of breakthroughs? Yes ...

-- 
Don		D.C.Lindsay 	Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science
--