In his lab at sun microsystems' Sari Diego Physical Sciences Center, Ashok Krishnamoorthy is surrounded by big numbers: looming powerful computers that can crank through a trillion operations per second. But what commands his attention these days is something very small: a prototype silicon chip, only a few millimeters on a side, that works like a magic gateway between muscle-bound computers. Although still a hatchling, this so-called silicon photonic chip, devised by a Carlsbad, Calif. startup called Luxtera, could mark the beginning of a new Internet era when computers will be able to tap into huge reserves of data, no matter where they are situated, as easily as they now retrieve data from their own hard drives. "It will mean that distance truly won't matter anymore," says Arno Penzias, a Nobel laureate and one of Luxtera's venture backers. "Wherever you are, you can share in all the world's information.
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