Taara, a moonshot project under Google’s parent Alphabet, can now beam internet through the air using a photonic chip about the size of a fingernail.
A project from Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is debuting a new chip that promises to deliver gigabit internet speeds over the air — no cable needed.
The technology comes from Taara, which has been using light beams to deliver high-speed internet without relying on traditional optical fiber. Instead, the team created equipment that can sit on a cell tower and beam light signals through the air, transmitting 20 gigabits per second to another receiver as far as 20 kilometers away.
The Taara project has since developed a way to condense the equipment, making it easier to install while also reducing the complexity. “We’ve taken most of the core functionality of the Taara Lightbridge—which is the size of a traffic light—and shrunken it down to the size of a fingernail,” Taara General Manager Mahesh Krishnaswamy wrote in a blog post.
The resulting “silicon photonic chip” still uses light to beam internet data through the air.
