In an effort to counteract the blast of negative news, IBM Corp on Friday rushed out an announcement that its Yorktown Heights scientists had developed an experimental ultra-fast switch chip that can handle data at the rate of 5Gbps – more than double any previously reported rate – in each of 16 channels at the same time to give an overall data rate of 10G-bytes per second. The experimental multiplexer and switch chip – a 16 by 16 crosspoint switch – was implemented with IBM’s 0.8 micron double-poly self-aligned ECL technology; it exhibits a proprogation delay of just420pS and dissipates about 4.6W. The company reckons that the switch chip can help maximize the rate of sharing and exchange of data between components in computer systems and in Integrated Services Digital Nets of multiple voice, data and video feeds.
