Co-Packaged Optics market to have 46% 2022-33

New optical interconnects have emerged for HPC and its new disaggregated architecture, while in-package optical I/O technology for processors, memory, and storage can help achieve the necessary bandwidths. The aim is to bring optics to very short reach transmission distances, such as intra-rack applications or within a system.

“Currently, many challenges stem from using electrical I/Os,” says Yole’s Martin Vallo, “applications such as AI/ML frequently need to move data rapidly from one chip to another or one board to another. Consequently, the computing chips need more communication, either through a larger number of pads or very high speed in a single pad. Additionally, data movement power is the primary driver of power increases in server chips”.

 Most of the optical I/O solutions will offer a disaggregated, remote laser that provides platform flexibility as well as field replaceability. The bandwidth scaling roadmap of optical I/O chiplets starts with the capability of carrying 2Tbps bandwidth in each direction with a bandwidth per shoreline of 200 Gbps/mm as developed by Ayar Labs. 

According to Yole Intelligence, readiness for 1 – 10 Tbps/mm bandwidth per shoreline will be available by the end of the decade. Some users are more optimistic about readiness and availability on > 20 Tbps and > 50 Tbps off-package shoreline bandwidth.

“The potential for billions of optical interconnects in the future is driving leading foundries such as Tower Semiconductor (Acquired by Intel), GlobalFoundries (March 2022 announcement), ASE Group, TSMC, and Samsung to prepare mass production process flows, including silicon photonics, to accept any PIC (Phoyonic IC);architecture from design houses. All of them are joining forces in industry consortiums such as PCIe, CXL, and UCIe,” says Yole’s Eric Mounier.

Accelerating data movement in AI/ML systems is the main driver for adopting optical interconnects for next-generation HPC systems. Using optical I/O in ML hardware can help to solve the problems caused by the growth of data. Deep photonics integration, driven by advances in silicon photonics, has already demonstrated its viability in specific data centre applications. And optical I/O chiplet architecture will expand beyond Datacom.