Coloring Optical Signals For More Bandwidth In Data Centers


Copper cabling has been the workhorse for moving data inside of AI and HPC data centers, but fiber is nipping at its heels. Optics brings three possible bandwidth multipliers — wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), the use of different modes, and polarization. Each has a role in longer-distance optical links, but the tradeoffs are different in the data center. WDM appears poised to boost... » read more

Photonic SRAM Facilitating Electro-Optic Data Storage For Ultra-Fast IMC (UW-Madison, USC)


A new technical paper titled "X-pSRAM: A Photonic SRAM with Embedded XOR Logic for Ultra-Fast In-Memory Computing" was published by researchers at University of Wisconsin–Madison and USC. Abstract "Traditional von Neumann architectures suffer from fundamental bottlenecks due to continuous data movement between memory and processing units, a challenge that worsens with technology scaling ... » read more

A Photonic Circuit Architecture Allowing Faster, More Efficient Transfer of Large Amounts of Data


A technical paper titled "Massively scalable Kerr comb-driven silicon photonic link" was published by researchers at Columbia University and Air Force Research Laboratory. Abstract: "The growth of computing needs for artificial intelligence and machine learning is critically challenging data communications in today’s data-centre systems. Data movement, dominated by energy costs and limi... » read more

Analyzing Electro-Photonic Systems


The design and analysis of electro-optical systems is pushing tools into the complex multi-physics domain, making it challenging to create models that execute at reasonable cost — especially when they include thermal impacts. The lack of models and standards also is slowing the progression of the technology. Still the advantages are worth it to those willing to make the investment. Trad... » read more

Silicon Photonics: Automated Wafer-Level Probing And Silicon Photonics


As chip designers are pressed for ever-increasing data rates, the use of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) with infrared photonic signals as a data transfer medium is increasingly finding its way into CMOS silicon-based devices. Termed “silicon photonics” (SiPh), this technology is not only being used to displace traditional electrical interconnects, but also for a broad range of appli... » read more