Data Transfer

When you want to isolate communications between two devices or locations, a fiber optic link is one of the best ways to go. Under some circumstances, however, you might also want to isolate the transmission of power – in situations where traditional copper wire might prove unsafe or impractical, for instance. That’s why researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are developing a power-over-fiber (PoF) communications cable. It carries not only data, but also optical power.  Read More

The PC and Mac advocates have been debating for years over which is superior, with good arguments on both sides; but a third, often overlooked camp exists: people who use both. If you're in that group, then you know how frustrating it can be to have the perks of both machines, but the downside of few easy options for sharing files or peripherals between the two. That's why tech manufacturer j5create has rolled out the Wormhole Switch and the Wormhole Station, which allow file transfers between PC, Mac, Android, and iOS, as well as keyboard and mouse sharing.  Read More

An international team is claiming a data transfer record that puts any home broadband connection to shame. At last month’s SuperComputing 2011 (SC11) conference in Seattle, researchers reached transfer rates of 98 gigabits per second (Gbps) between the University of Victoria Computing Centre located in Victoria, British Columbia, and the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. Coupled with a simultaneous data rate of 88 Gbps in the opposite direction the team reached a two-way data rate of 186 Gbps to break their own previous peak-rate record of 119 Gbps set in 2009.  Read More

A recent study shows that ISPs – which long maintained that data was their biggest expense – are grossly overcharging for data. The price increases to our mobile or land-based internet appear to be based on greed, not need.  Read More

With video content consuming ever more bandwidth, the need for faster data transmission rates has never been greater. Now a team of scientists at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are claiming a world record in data transmission with the successful encoding of data at a rate of 26 terabits per second on a single laser beam and transmitting it over a distance of 50 km (31 miles). The scientists claim this is the largest data volume ever transported on a laser beam and enables the transmission of 700 DVD's worth of content in just one second.  Read More

A lot of us have one "mothership" desktop computer, along with a laptop or notebook that we take on the road. Many of us also use one computer at work, and another at home. Inevitably, there are occasions where we're using one computer, but wishing we could access a file on the other. While there is remote access software that allows you to do so, the iTwin system offers what seems to be a much simpler solution – two flash drive-like sticks that plug into either computer, and let them communicate for free over a secure internet connection.  Read More

Remember those innocent days when a humble cassette tape more than met our computer entertainment needs? As more and more of our lives have been digitized, our storage requirements have risen at almost the same rate as our impatience at waiting for files to travel from one place to another. Western Digital offers some relief with the announcement that it has upped the storage capacity and data transfer capabilities on its popular My Passport Essential, My Passport Essential SE and MyBook Essential external drives. In addition to offering up to 3TB of space for keeping digital memories, media, photos and files in one place, the range now also features USB 3.0 connectivity.  Read More

The SD Association is celebrating ten years this year and it used Europe's largest consumer electronics show – IFA – to announce a new, dual-row pin memory card design with data transfer speeds of up to 300 megabytes per second for SDXC and SDHC devices and memory cards. It is fully backwards compatible, allowing equipped devices full use of any SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards and will be part of the forthcoming SD 4.0 specification, expected in early 2011.  Read More

Other World Computing (OWC) has announced that super fast data transfer rates have been achieved during performance testing using four of its SSDs. Its drives were simultaneously connected to a Mac Pro via a couple of FirmTek eSATA controller cards, and 10GB read and write tests were performed. The test configuration managed to notch up some rather brisk data transfer rates of 853MB per second write and 1GB per second read, which should be more than enough to keep even the most active high definition video editors relatively grumble-free.  Read More