ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: A new plastic computer chip promises to rev up some Internet connections to light speed. It's called an optochip, and CNN's Ann Kellan reports.</s>ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tired of waiting for a file to download. This new plastic chip could help speed up traffic on the information superhighway, so much so we may one day be able to send 3D holograms like those on "Star Trek's" holodeck.</s>BILL STEIER, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Everyone wants on the Internet faster, wants to get their downloads faster, and lots of information in a short length of time.</s>KELLAN: The designers call it the optochip. Here's how it could help unclog telecommunication networks. Information on the Internet or from a phone conversation starts as an electronic signal. Once it leaves your home, it gets switched into a light beam to travel across speedy fiber optic networks. But switching from electric to light can slow things up. The new chip does it five to 10 times faster than existing technologies. How it does it is still a secret. Before you get too excited, you'll need a high-speed connection to the Internet like DSL or a cable modem for the optochip to help. But developers hope to fund commercial uses for the chip from companies that move vast amounts of data around the globe to the aerospace industry and the military to help satellites talk to one another. The optochip isn't the only switching technology in town.</s>GORDON THOMAS, PHYSICIST: There is an exciting race going on between these people making these optical switches out of plastic and the people making the optical switches out of crystal. And what these guys are reporting is that the plastic guys have made a very significant advance.</s>KELLAN: Unlike "Star Trek," centuries into the future of science fiction, we're still a long way from the absolutely lifelike images of a holodeck. But the optochip brings us one step closer to the day we can make it so. Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.
Plastic Chip Technology Sets Speed Record for Electric-to- Optical Signal Conversion