Super Speed, Greater Learning

Don Clark writing in the Wall Street Journal reports that Intel Corporation has reached "a new milestone on the way to developing computers that use inexpensive optical components to
achieve massive increases in communication speeds. The company said it has fabricated the first modulator made from silicon that can encode data onto a beam of light at a rate of 40 billion bits per second, or gigabits. Modulators are key components in using lasers to send data down fiber-optic cable."

"Such speeds -- roughly 40 times faster than the most sophisticated corporate data networks -- now require expensive materials, a factor that helps push the cost of existing 40-gigabit modulators into the thousands of dollars. "

As technology breakthroughs continue to come at a furious pace, the need for trainers, teachers, and instructors to explain it all will only broaden.