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The very nature of technology means that as soon as we embrace a new device or trend, we crave for the next step up.
Whether it's a new smartphone, laptop or even games console, our appetite for technological progress and the enrichment it brings to our lives has approached near insatiable levels in recent years.
The world of cabling is no exception, with a number of new technologies riding on the wave of the digital age by bringing us innovations that help us transfer data at speeds previously thought impossible.
Such innovation has been taken to a whole new level in recent weeks, with a team of engineers from the University of Illinois now claiming to have smashed the current data transfer speed record by achieving a connection of 57 gigabits per second at room temperature.
To put this into perspective, such speed would enable users to download a whole Blu-ray in just a few seconds.
While that figure will undoubtedly impress a large number of people, it is worth stressing that this speed is achievable at room temperature, with warmer conditions known to have a negative impact on data transfer speeds.
Nevertheless, it is still the fastest speed ever recorded for a data transmission, having been made possible by a new type of laser known as a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL).
The technology is used across fibre optic lines making up a large portion of broadband infrastructure that's already present in homes and offices across the country.
The technology uses lasers that utilise sharper and more efficient pulses of light. What sets it apart is that it is capable of producing impressive speeds at higher temperatures.
Scientists claim to have recorded speeds of up to 50Gbps in temperatures as high as 85 degrees Celsius.
Those results are sure to interest users requiring a solution that will have to cope with certain industrial conditions, with such speeds opening up a wealth of possibilities.
For instance, the need for implementing refrigeration units to keep the massive data centres used by the likes of Amazon and Facebook cool enough to function at a high level.
Milton Feng from the University of Illinois, who was part of a team that achieved 40Gbps speeds back in 2014, told Science Alert recently: "Our big question has always been, how do you make information transmit faster?"
"There is a lot of data out there, but if your data transmission is not fast enough, you cannot use data that's been collected; you cannot use upcoming technologies that use large data streams, like virtual reality.
"The direction toward fibre-optic communication is going to increase because there’s a higher speed data rate, especially over distance."
