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To: SJS who wrote (12369)	3/6/2000 11:29:00 AM
From: drsvelte	Respond to of 14427

Bought some Agilent (A) at 122. Blue sky breakout. Comments from Briefing.com.... Agilent (A) 119 7/8 +11 7/8: The Optical Fiber Communications conference is underway in Baltimore, and Agilent has become one of the first companies to unveil a new product. Though the actual presentation won't take place until tomorrow, Agilent has already issued a press release this morning discussing its new optical switching technology. Optical switching has been one of the key technological obstacles to an all-optical network. DWDM technology has made it possible to deliver tremendous bandwidth over a single fiber, but the traffic travelling over these fibers must be converted back to an electrical signal in order to be directed to its destination. This conversion from electrical to optical and back to electrical slows the speed of the transmission. Agilent now claims to have developed an optical switch that is already being integrated into carrier-class network elements by several industry leaders, and will be available commercially by year-end. Also notable about this switch is the technology employed. Moving parts, most notably mirrors, have often been envisioned as the key to redirecting the path of photons from one wavelenght to another. But Agilent has apparently accomplished this feat with a rather old technology -- the bubble created by an inkjet printer. Agilent's switch uses this bubble to redirect photons as they travel through an array of waveguides. When a switch command is ordered, a bubble will form in the array, redirecting the photons to the desired wavelength. Sounds esoteric, sure, but optical switching is the holy grail of the all-optical network. And the possibility that Agilent has leap-frogged many of its glitzier competitors with inkjet technology is quite a story. The stock has seen a huge run over the past several months, but if Agilent is suddenly viewed in the same light as optical heroes such as Sycamore (SCMR) and Ciena (CIEN), watch out. - GJ