If you ever ask yourself “how much further can we go with the internet” my advice is don’t. 7 years ago when we started Timico the typical broadband connection was anything between 512k and 2Megs. Today 100Megs is being sold.
Just over a year ago we saw the first commercial terabit routers hit the market (not cheap mind with entry levels at around $90k). Now we hear that the first 100 terabit per second laser has just been demonstrated using Fast Fourier Transform techniques.
This tells me we still have a long way to go with internet speeds. Most thrilling of all it is the first time I have heard mention of Fast Fourier Transforms since I left Bangor university with a BSc in Electronic Engineering. I hated FFTs with a vengeance and in 28 years of work have never come across a single mention of one let along an application that needed it. I’m sure there are many – in the early 1980s I recall our lecturer telling us that 90% of the world’s computing power was dedicated to performing calculations using such beasts – probably the equivalent of a desktop PC today:) .
Anyway today we are celebrating two things – the 100Tb laser and the coming of age of the Fast Fourier Transform. Long live progress.
PS original “nature photonics” paper here – it’ll cost you though.
