Comments by "Scott Franco" (@scottfranco1962) on "Silicon Photonics: The Next Silicon Revolution?" video.

  1. You have tapped into a classic boondoggle here. When I was with Cisco around 2000, the big "new wave" was about all optical switching, which was supposed to be faster than converting optical to electronic and back again, often with DMMs (Digital Micro Mirrors). Howed that work out? The startup world was littered with smoking holes of failed companies. I think the bottom line is we know a lot about devices that operate on electrical signals, but not so much about devices that work on pure light. As in everyone knows what an electrical nand gate is, and optical nand gates are possible with optical signals, but good luck getting that to work, be integrated at high densities, and be efficient. Lets start with the basics. You can route signals easily in electronics, and the 10+ layers of interconnect on current ICs talk to this. What's a light conductor on an IC? Well, air, which should be free, but is far from it. You would have to couple in and out of the IC at many points, which is expensive in terms of real estate. You could conduct with glass, and that is a whole 'nuther level. I'm not saying never. I'm just saying that with any breathless new wave of technology you have to look at history and see if that wave has not broken previously, or like every 5 years or so (cough.... AI).
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