Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ratan lal who wrote (31251)	9/8/2000 12:31:13 PM
From: Thomas Mercer-Hursh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Now that you brought it up, you need to follow up on it. I am sure there are VC's in the Bay Area just dying to fund this project. I'm sure there are ... but I'm not aware of anyone really having a glimmer of how to do it yet, which makes for a rather weak business plan (not that this has always stopped VCs). My sense is that we are a good two steps off, i.e., we have not yet gotten close enough to even know what the right directions are going to be, but are only close enough to have a couple of things that are vaguely suggestive. In fact, I got to thinking this morning whether it might turn out that this holy grail might not be as significant as it seems. If one thinks in terms of optical replacing electrical, then one thinks in terms of wanting to be able to do in an optical environment what one can do in the electrical, hence the grail. But, what if it turns out that introducing that layer of processing, even supposing it becomes possible, actually just got in the way of optical doing what it does best, i.e., really moving data, and that the optimum strategy consisted of picking the optimum available optical pipe externally, while still in the electrical part of the network, even if that meant a little extra routing at one end or the other. Just a thought.

To: ratan lal who wrote (31251)	9/10/2000 4:37:12 AM
From: El Guapo	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 54805

No one has come up with the basic science required to analyze the data being transmitted as a light signal without first converting that light signal to an electrical signal. Until that basic science is developed, there will not be any pure optical switch. DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY !! Now that you brought it up, you need to follow up on it. I am sure there are VC's in the Bay Area just dying to fund this project. Historical note: The original DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY was the solid state transistor. Invented by Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain, their goal was to develop a replacement for the vacuum tube for Bell Labs (AT&T). Why? Although it was smaller and more reliable than mechanical magnetic switches, the vacuum tube was still fairly unreliable and inefficient. It was the weak link in the solid-state copper phone network. They accomplished their job, and changed the world far more than they could have imagined. people.whitman.edu Now, some 50 years later, history is repeating itself. Networks have gone from copper to optical, however, the switches remain electrical, a 50 year-old technology. Will we see necessity bear the fruits of invention that will bring the next 50 years of technical revolution? It's already started... and once again by Bell Labs. net.org At its core, it's still semiconductor, but one day, it may be replaced... Processors are not the 'killer app' for optical computing. They are too complex and have high barriers to entry. Routers, on the other hand... well, anyone make a call through a vacuum tube lately? Oh yeah, you have to go to the tech museum for that. A pure optical (non-semiconductor) transistor is a very very compelling disruptive technology. That alone will drive men to break the laws of physics, just as the alchemists of old once devoted their lives to turning lead into gold. Ironically, it is possible to turn lead into gold, but not profitable. Silly men, if instead they learned to turn photons around a corner and on and off, they could simply buy all the gold in the world. El Guapo