Intel’s Integrated Photonic Solutions (IPS) Group has announced the industry’s first fully integrated optical computing interconnect (OCI) chiplet, co-packaged with an Intel CPU. This breakthrough technology is designed to address the increasing demand for high-bandwidth interconnect solutions in AI infrastructures for data centers and high-performance computing applications.
The OCI chiplet supports 64 channels of 32 Gbps data transmission in each direction over up to 100 meters of optical fiber. This will enable future scalability of CPU/GPU cluster connectivity and support innovative computing architectures such as coherent memory expansion and resource disaggregation. The chiplet aims to increase bandwidth, reduce power consumption, and expand the reach of machine learning workload acceleration.
As AI-based applications continue to grow globally, there is a need for larger and more efficient machine learning models to meet the demands of AI acceleration workloads. This requires exponential growth in I/O bandwidth and increased reach to support larger processing unit architectures and clusters with more efficient resource utilization.
The OCI chiplet leverages Intel’s silicon photonics technology, integrating a silicon photonics integrated circuit with on-chip lasers and optical amplifiers alongside an electrical IC. The chiplet supports bi-directional data transfer of up to 4 Tbps, demonstrating strong signal quality and energy efficiency compared to existing optical transceiver modules.
Overall, Intel’s OCI chiplet represents a significant advancement in optical interconnect technology, providing a solution for the growing demands of AI infrastructure that offers higher bandwidth, lower power consumption, and greater reach. This technology has the potential to revolutionize high-performance computing environments and address the unsustainable power requirements of AI workloads.
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