Intel has unveiled a groundbreaking technology known as Optical Compute Interconnect (OCI), which integrates optical input/output chiplets with a CPU. This innovation allows for data transmission over longer distances with high bandwidth and low power consumption compared to traditional chips that use copper wires and electricity for data exchange. The OCI technology is expected to revolutionize AI infrastructure that relies on large-scale CPU and GPU clusters.
The OCI technology was announced by Intel’s Integrated Photonics Solutions (IPS) group at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC) 2024 in March 2024. The core of this technology involves an optical input/output chiplet that is fully integrated into Intel CPUs. While traditional electrical I/O systems offer high bandwidth and low power consumption, they are limited in their scalability due to operating over short distances of less than one meter.
The OCI technology from Intel supports 64 lanes of 32 Gbps data transmission in each direction over optical fiber up to 100 meters. This meets the requirements of AI infrastructure that demands high bandwidth, low power consumption, and long-distance communication. By replacing current hardware that uses electrical I/O with optical I/O, Intel compares the improvement to upgrading from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles for delivering goods.
To demonstrate OCI’s implementation, Intel developed a fully integrated chiplet capable of bidirectional data transfers of up to 4 Tbps. This chiplet can be integrated not only with CPUs but also with GPUs, AI chip IPUs, and other Systems on a Chip (SoCs). The goal is to address the increasing demand for data movement between servers in data centers, which is putting a strain on current electrical I/O solutions.
Thomas Liljeberg, senior director of product management and strategy at the IPS Group, highlighted that Intel’s OCI chiplets enable the seamless integration of photonic interconnect solutions into next-generation computing systems. This integration increases bandwidth and communication range while reducing power consumption, which speeds up machine learning workloads and enhances high-performance AI infrastructure.
Overall, Intel’s OCI technology represents a significant advancement in data transmission and interconnectivity for AI infrastructure. By leveraging optical input/output chiplets, Intel aims to improve performance, reduce power consumption, and enable more efficient communication over longer distances in large-scale CPU and GPU clusters. This innovation has the potential to shape the future of AI computing and revolutionize data processing capabilities for various applications.
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