Ivan Sutherland and Robert Drost, scientists at Sun Microsystems, are challenging the belief that chips need to be wired together so they can share data.

They have developed a wireless approach, in which two chips less than a hair’s width apart “ping” data back and forth through the air. Physical connections aren’t necessary. The tests of what is called “proximity communication” let foresee that this breakthrough could bring a tenfold or even 100-fold improvement in computing speed.

This proximity-computing project was the Gold winner in The Wall Street Journal’s 2004 Technology Innovation Awards competition.

Via Wall Street Journal.