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Ask HN: Optical Hardware Displacement Law?

2 points by vermorel ↗ HN
Years ago I had read (probably on HN) that there was a decade-long trend in computing hardware replace electrical communication by optical communication over distances which were getting shorter and shorter over time as tech progresses. I am looking for pointers to support this claim (or refute it if I remember wrong). Can someone point me in the right direction?

2 comments

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wmf
This is certainly true although I'm not sure where it has been written up. A 10G/40G copper (twinax) cable can go 7 meters, for 25G/100G it's 5 m, and for 50G/400G I think it's only 3 m. Considering bend radius and connector lengths, 3 m is not far at all.