I had disconnected wires to move things around, and when I tried to connect it back, I noticed it seems to be missing something.<BR><BR>The small lid on the optical input is gone and when I try to ...

It was once the most high-tech and futuristic feature you could find: Transmit sound -- with light! Lasers! A cable not of copper, but glass! Except, it was almost never glass, and was usually ...

Several factors are driving the popularity of optical fiber cabling. Chief among those is the growth of high-tech applications that require the massive bandwidth fiber-optic cabling makes possible.

The chipmaker wants to replace today's hodge-podge of copper cables with a single type of optical connection--and hopes standardization will help it catch on. Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from ...