The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA) Ultraperformance Nanophotonic Intrachip Communication program is funding high-risk research into how optical communications may revolutionize chip design. The program recently made a $44.29 million dollar award to Sun Microsystems and a group of affiliated academic researchers to replace the wires of modern computing chips with laser beams.

As John Markoff from the New York Times explains:
"Processor and memory chips are currently made by etching hundreds or thousands of identical circuits onto a single wafer of silicon and then slicing that wafer into fingernail-size chips. That manufacturing process ensures that if there is a defect at a single spot on the giant wafer it will not ruin the entire batch of chips.The drawback in the approach is that wires have to connect the chips in a computer. This causes a fundamental limit in processing power because data moves between chips at lower speeds, creating significant bottlenecks."

The goal of the Sun research is to replace those wires with optical interconnects allowing for much faster data transmission while also increasing efficency. If this research is successful it could lead to dramatic increases in computing power, far outstripping limitations that Moore's Law is encountering today. NEC recently announced that there own research in this area could allow for a supercomputer to be created able to reach 10petaflops.

Sun Chip Image: Layout of Interconnects by Sun Microsystems