Downloading a whole CD in 13 seconds! WOW!

An international team set a new record for Internet performance by transferring the equivalent of an entire compact disc's contents across more than 7608 miles (12,272 km) of network in 13 seconds. The rate of 401 megabits per second achieved in transferring 625 megabytes of data from Fairbanks, Alaska to Amsterdam in the Netherlands is over 8000 times greater than the fastest dial-up modem.

The record-setting team consisted of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks; the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam and SURFnet, the national computer network for higher education and research in the Netherlands. On both ends standard PC-like hardware running Debian GNU/Linux was used.

With an internet connection of this size transferring all six CDs of Woody from Fairbanks to Amsterdam would only require 78 seconds. We're in need of faster CD burners, it would seem.

"This shows that geography is no barrier to advanced network applications," said Kerry Digou, the systems programmer who headed the University of Alaska team. "Using standard equipment and infrastructure developed in the Internet2 community, we've pushed the boundaries to the edges."

News source: Slashdot