Intel just unveiled its 50Gbps fiber-optic network card. Now that’s fast. Even as gigabit wiring becomes mainstream, I think we lose sight of the fact that we’re pushing a billion on-off signals every second down a tiny copper wire that’s strung between walls. Now we’re looking at fifty times that.
Intel says they’re working on the next-generation terabit model. One trillion pulses of light every second? Heck, in a trillionth of a second a photon travels about one foot. That’s some pretty amazing speed. And in five years we’ll take it for granted.