Communications between computers, telephones and other electronic devices using light. An optical network is far more reliable and has far greater potential transmission capacity than networking in the electrical domain. See optical fiber.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Apple iMac (21.5-inch, 3.06Hz Intel Core 2 Duo, Nvidia GeForce 9400M, Fall 2009)
- We awarded Apple an Editors' Choice for its new $1,699 iMac, largely because its 27-inch screen dwarfs its competition in that price range. So what to make of Apple's new lower-end iMac? At $1,199, its 21.5-inch screen is hardly the size leader for its price, and without a touch screen...
- Product reviews 2009-11-17
- Alienware M15x (Intel Core i7 720QM, 250GB HDD, 3GB)
- Keeping the same revised look and feel as the recent 17-inch M17x version, the Alienware M15x is an imposing black slab of computing power that's thicker and heavier than most 17-inch laptops. We love having high-end options such as Intel's uberpowerful Core i7-920XM CPU, and it's a plus that...
- Product reviews 2009-11-13
- Gateway NV7802u
- Editors' note: This review is part of our 2009 Retail Laptop and Desktop Holiday Roundup, which covers specific fixed configurations of popular systems found in retail stores.Gateway continues to offer some of the best bang-for-your-buck retail laptops. The NV7802u is a fine example: It's a 17-inch wide-screen model with a...
- Product reviews 2009-11-13
- Sony Vaio L117FX (Core 2 Quad Q8400s 2.66GHz, 6GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Windows 7 Home Premium)
- Had Apple not introduced a 27-inch iMac for $1,699, we'd have fewer reservations about Sony asking $1,999 for its new 24-inch Vaio L117FX. Yes, HP's TouchSmart 600 expanded on some of Sony's innovations from its previous generation all-in-ones. Sony also doesn't even attempt to match HP's creative multitouch software. But...
- Product reviews 2009-11-13
- HP Pavilion Slimline s5220y
- HP's $480 Pavilion Slimline s5220y is another low-end slim tower PC that offers mediocre performance and equally unexciting performance packaged in a relatively boring case. Its small stature might tempt some of you to use it as a light-duty PC, or even a media-streaming box, but its out-of-date connectivity options...
- Product reviews 2009-11-12
- Nokia Booklet 3G (black)
- Mobile phone maker Nokia is jumping into the Netbook pool with its recently announced Booklet 3G laptop, offering a premium-feeling system for a rock-bottom price, as long as you agree to a two-year AT&T mobile data contract. The Booklet 3G is easily one of the most upscale-looking Netbooks we've...
- Product reviews 2009-11-10
- Dell Studio XPS 8000
- Dell's Studio XPS 8000 offers an attractive chassis and mostly up-to-date features. Its configurations start as low as $699, but our $1,329 review unit is a solid upper-midrange performance desktop that will play games and handle more demanding digital media tasks with little difficulty. For the very price-performance conscious, both...
- Product reviews 2009-11-10
- Dell Inspiron i1545-4374PBU
- Editors' note: This review is part of our holiday 2009 retail desktop and laptop review roundup, covering specific fixed configurations of popular systems that can be found in retail stores. There's something to be said for simplicity. The Dell Inspiron i1545-4374PBU might not look like much and its limited supply...
- Product reviews 2009-11-07
- Dell Inspiron i545s-1476N
- The $480 Inspiron 545s-1476 is the third Dell desktop we've reviewed with the company's current slim tower chassis, and we can't say our opinion has changed since the last time we saw it. We're still satisfied with its design, but we remain disappointed with the features Dell seems to have...
- Product reviews 2009-11-06
- Gateway NV5207u
- The Gateway NV5207u is what happens when a slow processor happens to an otherwise respectable budget-priced laptop. It's a good-looking notebook with a large screen, a decent port assortment, and a couple of extra features to sweeten the deal. But its AMD processor is a poor performer despite being dual...
- Product reviews 2009-11-05
- AVADirect Nano Cube
- AVADirect's $2,266 Nano Cube tries to take on Shuttle's XPC H7 5800 at its own small form factor game. Both systems come with smaller-than-normal SFF cases, and each requires sacrifices, even more than with a standard SFF PC, in exchange for its tiny dimensions. Therein lies our problem with this...
- Product reviews 2009-11-04
- Toshiba Satellite A505-S6980
- You can't argue with a large-screen, value-priced laptop when it delivers good performance, and looks nice to boot. We appreciated the Toshiba Satellite A505-S6960 when we reviewed it in our 2009 back-to-school retail roundup, liking its affordability, large screen, strong battery life, and excellent-sounding speakers. Just a few months later,...
- Product reviews 2009-11-04
- Sony Vaio X (VPC-X115KX/N Signature Collection, gold)
- Sony has thus far taken a position just adjacent to Apple's when it comes to the question of Netbooks. Rather than embracing these low-cost, low-power systems that have become incredibly popular with bargain-hunting consumers, Sony stayed out of the market initially. Its subsequent entries have skirted the outer edges of...
- Product reviews 2009-11-02
- Toshiba Satellite L455-S5975
- We've said it before, and we'll say it again: especially in this economy, it's hard to hate a laptop that only costs $350. It's even harder to hate a Windows 7 laptop that costs that much. The Toshiba L455-S5975 is, by 50 dollars, the least expensive notebook computer in our...
- Product reviews 2009-11-02
- Averatec D1130 All-in-One
- The Averatec D1130 All-In-One is a stripped-down version of the D1133 we reviewed last month, and while this version cuts the price down to only $399, it also strips away many of the features that gave the higher-end model some value. With its puny 1.6GHz Intel Atom chip, 1GB of...
- Product reviews 2009-10-30
- Acer Aspire Revo AR1600-U910H
- Typically our challenges with the emergent Nettop category have been that real budget PCs cost just a little bit more and provide a dramatic performance uptick, and similarly priced Netbooks offer equivalent performance with the added benefit of portability. The Aspire Revo 1600's price tag alone answers those issues. ...
- Product reviews 2009-10-30
- Apple iMac 27-inch
- If we could, we'd take points away from this iMac simply because by giving it a 27-inch display Apple threatens our livelihood. You don't need our input to simply walk past the 27-inch iMac on a store shelf and recognize that it's the largest all-in-one currently available, and that it...
- Product reviews 2009-10-21
- Asus Eee Top ET2002
- Nvidia wants us to tell you that its GeForce 9400M graphics chip, aka Nvidia's Ion technology, pulls Asus' Eee Top ET2002 up from the depths of Nettop misery by imparting it with better-than-terrible graphics and video processing. We agree that the 9400 chip improves the ET2002's visual chops, but a...
- Product reviews 2009-10-20
- Lenovo SL510
- Without proceeding any further, I am about to make a guess: you have already decided whether or not you're buying a ThinkPad. The iconic brand, the unending combination of professional respect, solid features, and unabashed blandness, combine to make a product that has surprising appeal across the board, yet remains,...
- Product reviews 2009-10-16
- Psystar Open(Q)
- If nothing else, Psystar's OpenQ should serve as a message to Apple that it's long overdue in bringing quad-core CPUs to its mainstream desktops. Because as much as the OpenQ lacks Apple's design polish, this $799, illicitly OS X-based midtower runs circles around Apple's $1,499 24-inch iMac on our benchmarks....
- Product reviews 2009-10-09
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