Intel recently made a major breakthrough in integrated photonics technology, unveiling the industry’s first fully integrated optical computational interconnect (OCI) chiplet at the 2024 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC). This chiplet, when packaged alongside an Intel CPU, demonstrated live data transmission, marking a significant advancement in high-bandwidth interconnect technology.
The OCI chiplet replaces electrical I/O with optical I/O on CPUs and GPUs, enhancing data transfer capabilities similar to upgrading from horse-drawn carriages to cars and trucks for transporting goods. This development brings improved performance and power efficiency to AI scaling, addressing the growing demands of AI infrastructure in data centers and high-performance computing applications.
Designed to support 64 channels of 32 gigabits per second (Gbps) data transmission in each direction over up to 100 meters of optical fiber, the OCI chiplet meets the need for higher bandwidth, lower power consumption, and longer range in AI infrastructure. It enables scalability of CPU/GPU cluster connectivity and novel computing architectures, supporting advancements in AI-based applications and large language models.
The OCI chiplet utilizes Intel’s silicon photonics technology, integrating a silicon photonics integrated circuit (PIC) with on-chip lasers and optical amplifiers. This integrated solution supports bidirectional data transfers of up to 4 terabits per second (Tbps) and demonstrates strong signal quality with low power consumption.
Intel is also enhancing its silicon photonics fab process node to improve device performance and reduce power consumption. The current OCI chiplet is a prototype, with plans to collaborate with customers to integrate OCI with their systems-on-chips (SoCs) as an optical I/O solution.
Overall, Intel’s development of the OCI chiplet represents a significant step forward in high-speed data transmission technology, positioning the company at the forefront of AI infrastructure innovation and shaping the future of connectivity.
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