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Intel has just announced its CW(Continuous Wave) Si laser result. It is giving out 8 mW, which is quite substantial, and make use of Raman amplification, as with all other Si lasers announced to date.

LightReading has an article on this, and LR’s articles are more useful than most because of their comments. There are a good mix of technical and business views and you usually get better picture than the article alone provide.

As many had commented, Si lasers still need optical pumping. But pump lasers are cheaper and more efficient than telecom lasers, and personally I think the invention is going to be worthwhile. Think PIC(Photonics Integrated Circuit) with a few of these Si \qleft lasers, \qright silicon modulators & waveguides, plus MOSFET & stuffs on silicon—which Intel is not very bad at doing. Attach a 100mW pump laser module as ‘battery’, and the unit can start working.

See flash demo of the new laser here.