The benefits and tradeoffs of using optics to move data.
Moving data through a chip or package, and between packages and systems, is becoming a much bigger challenge as the volume of data continues to explode, and as more compute resources are deployed to work on data-intensive problems such as training AI algorithms or running long and complex simulations. There is more data to process in more places, more levels of data storage and access, and any delay can add latency and increase costs for a data centers. This is where optical communication has become a focus of attention, because of the enormous speed of the optical over longer distances. But using light for communication, particularly in dense racks of servers, adds its own set of challenges. Alireza Parsafar, senior staff technical sales engineer at Alphawave Semi, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about the benefits of optical, including the elimination of retimers and improved connections to electrical circuits, where it will likely be deployed first, and issues that can crop up that engineers will need to address.
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