Google has released more information about its highly anticipated Taara high-speed, light internet chip. Promising to deliver speeds of up to 20Gbps per second, this new chip could redefine how we all connect and use the internet.
X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory, has been developing the Taara chip for many years. Now, with this new silicon photonic chip, all that hard work has finally paid off.
Alphabet explains that this chip can transmit data through the air using beams of light. The new chip is a significant improvement over its predecessor, namely that it has dispensed with the need for a complicated series of mirrors and other light direction-changing hardware.
The chip functions similarly to traditional fiber optic cable, using light to carry data, but without the physical cable.
Lightning-fast internet coming
The new chip can use advanced software to help steer beams of light to where they are needed. Furthermore, it is considerably smaller than its predecessor.
The original Taara Lightbridge technology was roughly the size of a traffic light; the new chip is approximately the size of a fingernail, offering a substantial increase in convenience.
Taara was initially developed for X’s Project Loon internet broadcasting balloons. However, Alphabet shut that project down in 2021 to focus on the Taara chip alone.
The chip, or its predecessor, has even been tested to beam broadband across the Congo River and the streets of Nairobi.
Since the chip uses light as its data transfer medium, it can offer near-infinite bandwidth in the middle of the spectrum. It uses the part of the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and visible light.
This part of the spectrum, invisible to the naked eye, allows Taara to transmit data at speeds of up to 20Gbps over distances of up to 12.4 miles (20 km) simultaneously. Moreover, the new chip can be installed and set up in hours, compared to the months or years it takes to install fiber infrastructure.
According to reports, the new Taara chip should be available from 2026 onwards. However, uptake of the new chip could likely be slow, especially for the average consumer.
Should be available in 2026
Whatever the case, this new chip is certainly a huge breakthrough that could help connect the most remote parts of the world to the World Wide Web, where traditional internet connections are infeasible.
“Today, about 3 billion people are still unconnected, and there is a dire need to bring them online,” Taara General Manager Mahesh Krishnaswamy told Wired. He added that even connected people have abysmally slow speeds, barely fast enough to support streaming.
Other initiatives, like Starlink, are significant but don’t solve all the problems, as in denser areas, many people have to share the transmission, and each gets less bandwidth and slower speeds. “We can offer 10, if not 100 times more bandwidth to an end user than a typical Starlink antenna, and do it for a fraction of the cost,” he added.
Alphabet believes the new chip could also lead to the launch of autonomous vehicles that communicate faster using Taara. “The possibilities are as boundless as light itself,” Krishnaswamy concluded.