With Bits of Light by Richard Young Editor, The Intelligence Report Coming at you as fast as new Internet appliances is the boom in photonics. Few of today's servers can handle high-speed data flow across optical networks.
Older servers use slower streams of data converted into electrical form.
The phone companies have been using fiber for years, but the network boxes that switch signals are based on silicon chips. Silicon is about electrons. All the old legacy equipment will be replaced with new-age optical machines that work with photonics to expand capacity. New telecom systems that deal only in these bits of light will mean tremendous opportunities for a lot of companies, and Lucent's purchase of Ascend targets the breakthroughs in photonics. Lucent is on the leading edge with its push of fiber into offices.