The technology industry is turning to fiber optics as an alternative to improving communications on computer chips.
Traditionally, such components communicate via copper wires, but now companies like Intel and Ayar Labs are leading the search for fiber optic based solutions.
see more
Innovation in aviation: X-59, NASA's silent supersonic plane, will be…
Sustainability: the first electric bike WITHOUT BATTERIES is launched in…
It offers several advantages over copper cabling, including greater energy efficiency and ability to transmit data over long distances without signal degradation.
At a time when the demand for computing power for computing applications Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to grow, this change could revolutionize the world of chips.
(Image: disclosure)
The technology developed by Ayar Labs, a company based in Santa Clara, USA, involves the creation of a small “chiplet” that works alongside a conventional chip, converting the electrical signal into a optical.
This enables five times faster transmission rates, with ten times less latency and eight times greater energy efficiency than current methods.
However, despite the obvious benefits, some challenges remain. Reliability and manufacturability are ongoing issues.
Lasers used in optical transmission can be sensitive to extreme temperatures, which raises concerns about their durability in often very hot data center environments.
Intel, one of the giants in the chip industry, is testing Ayar Labs' products and also developing its own solutions for optical communication between chips.
Amit Nagra, vice president and general manager of the Intel Silicon Photonics product division, highlighted the importance this innovation to address next-generation AI challenges, which require increasingly more computing power. processing.
The move to fiber optics is not new on a large scale, as it has replaced copper in many scenarios, including undersea communications cables and data center connections.
However, its application to individual computing chips is a significant step that could improve the processing capacity of devices.
