Intel Unveils First Integrated Optical Interconnect, Opening New Possibilities for AI | List of Hardware Components and Functions | Hardware Components of Computer | Hardware Store | Turtles AI

Intel unveils an innovative integrated optical interconnect, opening new possibilities in the AI field. Discover how this groundbreaking technology could redefine data center infrastructure and improve energy performance.

Intel recently introduced the world’s first fully integrated optical interconnect, a cutting-edge solution designed to replace traditional I/O connections in next-generation computing systems. This technology aims to overcome the limitations of current electrical interconnects, offering significant improvements in bandwidth, energy efficiency, and latency.

The increasing demand for data transfer between servers is straining data center infrastructures, rapidly approaching the practical limits of electrical I/O performance. Intel’s solution, developed by the Integrated Photonics Solutions (IPS) group, promises to revolutionize this sector by integrating photonics into computing systems. This new OCI (Optical Compute Interconnect) chiplet offers significantly higher bandwidth through co-packaged optical input/output, supporting up to 64 channels at 32 Gbps data transmission speeds.

One of the main advantages of optical interconnects over electrical ones is the ability to support significantly greater distances, up to 100 meters of fiber optics compared to a few meters for electrical interconnects. This dramatically reduces latency and improves energy efficiency, consuming only 5 picojoules per bit compared to pluggable optical transceiver modules that consume about 15 picojoules per bit.

The OCI chiplet integrates a silicon photonic integrated circuit (PIC) with on-chip lasers and optical amplifiers, along with an electrical integrated circuit (IC), supporting bidirectional data transfer up to 4 terabits per second. This implementation is compatible with the PCIe Gen5 specification, demonstrating an optical link between two CPU platforms via a single-mode fiber cable, with an optical Tx diagram showing 8 wavelengths at 200 GHz spacing on a single fiber.

Intel, a market leader in silicon photonics, leverages over 25 years of internal research to offer integrated photonics solutions with superior reliability and performance. Their high-volume platform has already shipped over 8 million PICs with over 32 million on-chip lasers, demonstrating a laser failure rate of less than 0.1 FIT (failures-in-time).

The future of Intel’s silicon photonics includes the introduction of advanced process nodes and 3D packaging technologies aimed at further improving performance and economic efficiency. Intel’s roadmap includes continuous evolutions to support emerging applications up to 1.6 Tbps, making this technology crucial for addressing the growing computational power and energy efficiency needs of future data centers.

Intel’s innovation, besides improving AI infrastructure performance, represents a significant step towards more efficient and sustainable data centers. Integrated photonics solutions offer a promising method to tackle the energy and performance challenges that current electrical technology can no longer manage.

Highlights:

• Integrated Optical Interconnect: Intel has developed the first OCI chiplet offering higher bandwidth and greater energy efficiency.
• Performance Improvements: The technology supports up to 64 channels at 32 Gbps, reducing latency and extending reach up to 100 meters.
• Energy Efficiency: The OCI chiplet consumes only 5 picojoules per bit, significantly improving efficiency compared to traditional optical modules.
• Intel’s Leadership in Photonics: With over 25 years of research, Intel continues to innovate with advanced technologies to meet future data center needs.