GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- NANOPTICS, INC. today announced the formation of a joint venture with strategic partner SAMYANG CORP. The new company, Digital Optronics Corporation, will further develop Nanoptics' new method for mass production of Graded Index Plastic Optical fiber (GRIN POF) for use in Digital Communications. GRIN POF is a high bandwidth digital communication medium for distances up to100 meters (330 feet). It will compete in two primary markets namely Residential Networking and Optical Backplanes within the Internet infrastructure.GRIN POF is the ideal medium for these applications as it is inexpensive, unaffected by electromagnetic interference, is very secure, stable at high temperatures, extremely resilient, easy to install with minimal training and is able to transmit data at speeds of up to 2 Gigabits per second. Truly the fiberoptic medium of the future for these applications, the project has been appropriately named "Firebase", because of its blazing speed and potential universal use as a basic networking medium. Firebase GRIN POF compares well with existing primary media, i.e. Glass Optical fiber (GOF) and twisted copper wire. Firebase is substantially less expensive to manufacture and install than both copper wire and GOF, is faster than copper and significantly easier to handle and connect than GOF. Nanoptics Inc.