A report from ElectroniCast Corp. of San Mateo, Calif., predicts an explosion in the global market for internal optical interconnect components and subsystems through 2008. Components witnessed sales of $35.5 million in 1999 and are expected to reach $3.06 billion by 2008; sales of subsystems are forecast to rise to $10.1 billion from $349 million during that period.

ElectroniCast identifies three trends driving growth in the market: increasing density and power in digital machines following continued improvements in the performance of integrated circuits, higher data rates of microprocessors and the falling costs of internal optical interconnect links.