Internet2 Backbone to Hit 100Gpbs, in Theory

The super-fast Internet2 backbone that you don't have access to just got a hell of a lot faster, at least in theory. It used to have speeds of up to 10Gbps, which is pretty crazy fast. But now, by "sending data using 10 different colors, or wavelengths, of light over a single cable," they've ramped that on up to a staggering 100Gbps. Unfortunately for you lovely Giz readers, you won't be able to use that to download HD porn in half a second anytime soon. The Internet2 is a super-fast parallel internet that allows people who actually do decent things with their lives transfer huge amounts of data between Universities, research centers, and companies without hogging bandwidth on the regular-people internet. One of the first uses for the new speeds could be the $1.8 billion Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, set to open next May. It's much more important than keeping your Crysis game lag-free, so it gets priority over you, unfortunately. But hey, eventually I'm sure normal people will enjoy speeds like this, it just won't be anytime soon. And soon enough, even 100Gbps won't seem that impressive; the peeps behind the scenes say that with new equipment, they'll hit 400Gbps within the next couple years. Holy crap. [SF Gate]