It's name isn't "Ginger." In fact, it doesn't even have a name yet. But if Atlanta-based Luxcore perfects its latest project as company officials think they will, it might spell the end of bandwidth problems and revolutionize the way nearly all forms of data travel from one place to another.

Luxcore, a designer, manufacturer and marketer of optical internetworking systems that direct voice, data and video traffic across fiber optic networks entirely in the optical domain, is getting closer to unveiling its new product that could solve what it calls the "bandwidth bottleneck problem."

According to John Boyd, VP of Sales and Marketing for Luxcore, the as-yet unnamed product will be readied for release "sometime in the fourth quarter of 2001."

The technology Luxcore uses isn't based on electrical regeneration of optical signals, which at times gets slowed down due to high numbers of users, but on photonic routing and switching technology that uses laser light.

"The solution of the bandwidth problem is light," Boyd said. "Light has been increasing capacity and capability. The solution to the bandwidth management problem is to stay optical, and we think our product is going to change the way people communicate, and in a much quicker, much more efficient manner."

The solution of the bandwidth problem lies in the way the information travels, according to Boyd, and what happens when it gets to its destination. The end-point boxes need to communicate to each other, and Boyd said the current method of that happening is cumbersome, expensive and very slow. Luxcore product involves end-point boxes that are 75 percent smaller than ones currently used.

"What you could call it is a photonic wavelength router, and what it does is routes signals from one fiber to the other on a much more instantaneous level. Right now, we're working on the lowest common denominator. But laser light is coherent, and they never crash into each other. You can't do that with electricity. It is important to understand that it's coherent light in lasers that will help this process and create a better way to communicate."

The company has a lab system up and running as of this week, and will have an actual working model completed by March 17, in time for a demonstration at the OFC2001 conference in Anaheim, Calif.

In July, Luxcore received $10 million in first-round VC funding from investors including Metropolis Venture Partners and Delta Asset Management.