Intel Corporation has made a groundbreaking advancement in integrated photonic technology, which involves combining various photonic devices onto a single microchip using semiconductor manufacturing techniques. This allows for faster, more energy-efficient manipulation and transmission of light signals at a microscale compared to traditional electronic circuits.
At the Fiber Optic Communication Conference (OFC) 2024, Intel unveiled its first fully integrated optical computing interconnect (OCI) chiplet designed for high-speed data transmission. This chiplet, when paired with an Intel CPU, offers significant improvements in high-bandwidth interconnects, particularly in enhancing AI infrastructure in data centers and high-performance computing applications.
Key features and capabilities of the OCI chiplet include support for 64 channels of 32Gbps data transmission in each direction, achieving bi-directional data transfer of up to 4 terabits per second (Tbps) while consuming only 5 picojoules (pJ) per bit. It can transmit data up to 100 meters via fiber optics and supports future scalability for CPU/GPU cluster connectivity and new computing architectures.
The OCI chiplet aims to address the growing demands of AI infrastructure by providing higher bandwidth, lower power consumption, and greater reach. It enables the scalability of AI platforms, accommodating larger groups of processing units and promoting more efficient resource utilization.
In terms of technical advances, the OCI chiplet utilizes integrated silicon photonic technology, combining a silicon photonics integrated circuit (PIC) with an electrical integrated circuit. It achieves high data transmission quality with a 32 Gbps transmission eye diagram and uses Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) for efficient data transfer.
The impact of the OCI chiplet on AI and data centers includes improved ML workload acceleration, overcoming electrical I/O limitations, and supporting emerging AI workloads. Intel is currently collaborating with select customers to integrate the OCI chiplet with their systems on chips (SoC) as an optical I/O solution.
Intel’s leadership in silicon photonics is evident through its proven reliability, with over 8 million PICs shipped and more than 32 million lasers integrated into chips. The company continues to innovate by developing next-generation 200G/lane PICs for emerging applications and enhancing on-chip laser and SOA performance.
Overall, Intel’s OCI chiplet represents a significant advancement in high-speed data transmission, poised to revolutionize AI infrastructure and connectivity.
Article Source
https://www.unite.ai/intel-unveils-groundbreaking-optical-compute-interconnect-chiplet-revolutionizing-ai-data-transmission/
