Scratch may make web 100 times faster

MELBOURNE: Australian experts have developed a new technology that they claim can make web surfing 100 times faster in the near future.

Professor Ben Eggleton, a scientist at the University of Sydney, says that the novel technology is unlikely to cost users an extra cent.

Describing the university's photonic integrated circuit as "a small scratch on a piece of glass'', he insists that it can boost the performance of traditional optic fibres.

"This circuit uses the 'scratch' as a guide or a switching a path for information - kind of like when trains are switched from one track to another - except this switch takes one picosecond to change tracks,'' News.com.au quoted him as saying of the technology developed over the past four years.

"This means that in one second the switch is turning on and off about one million times,'' he said.

"Currently we use electronics for our switching and that has been OK, but as we move toward a more tech-savvy future there is a demand for instant web gratification,'' he added.

So far, initial tests of the technology have suggested that achieving internet speeds 60 times faster than the current Telstra network is possible, the researcher says.

Professor Eggleton strongly believes that, if developed further, the circuit may reach speeds 100 times faster.

"This is a critical building block and a fundamental advance on what is already out there,'' he said.

"We are talking about networks that are potentially up to 100 times faster without costing the consumer any more,'' he added.

India times.com dt. 12 7 2008