To: Rick Buskey who wrote (1178 ) 8/10/2000 11:53:10 PM From: jkc Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1219 Lightpath & Lightchip mentioned in Forbes ASAP. Compliments of David 6757 on Yahoo board. LightPath in ForbesASAP by: David6757 8/10/00 8:12 pm Msg: 30711 of 30732 OPTICAL INTEGRATED CIRCUITS In a rerun of the early days of the semiconductor industry, optics vendors are developing ways of making the optical equivalent of integrated circuits. Currently, vendors have to buy separate components to do things like generate light, break it up into pulses, and boost its strength and clarity. In the future, they'll be able to give the design to a semiconductor vendor who'll make a chip that will do all these things. Such a chip will eliminate a lot of time and cost, and the result will be much more reliable and much, much smaller--a big issue for telecom operators whose buildings are crammed to the ceilings with equipment. SELECT PLAYERS Bookham Tech. Lightpath Tech. Lumenon Innovative Lightwave Tech. Kymata Lightwave Microsys. Nanovation Technology LightChip in ForbesASAP by: David6757 8/10/00 8:15 pm Msg: 30712 of 30732 PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORKS This equipment offers a low-cost way of connecting customers to optical backbones. Instead of connecting each customer with a separate fiber, up to 32 of them share a single fiber. Each one gets a separate wavelength or data stream. This equipment is called "passive" because the key component--the device that splits the light into different wavelengths--doesn't require any electrical power. It works like a prism, splitting light into different colors. No power means there's nothing to go wrong or wear out. It also means the device can be installed in places where there's no electricity supply, like manholes in the road. More often than not, that's precisely where the prism sits, in a manhole adjacent to a cluster of buildings. It's also where the prism directs each of those 32 wavelengths or datastreams to the appropriate buildings near the manhole. THE PLAYERS Alcatel Lightchip Paceon Alloptic Lucent Quantum Bridge CS Telecom Marconi Terawave Fujitsu NEC