Lockheed Martin looks to pooling and optical I/O

Electronic systems must peer into ever-greater swathes of the electromagnetic spectrum to ensure a battlefield edge.

Michael HoffSuch electronic systems are used in ground, air, and sea vehicles and even in space.

The designs combine sensors and electronic circuitry for tasks such as radar, electronic warfare, communications and targeting.

Existing systems are custom designs undertaking particular tasks. The challenge facing military equipment makers is that enhancing such systems is becoming prohibitively expensive.

One proposed cost-saving approach is to develop generic radio frequency (RF) and sensor technology that can address multiple tasks.

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Data centre photonics - an ECOC report

• ECOC 2022 included talks on optical switching and co-packaged optics.
• Speakers discussed optical switching trends and Google's revelation that it has been using optical circuit switching in its data centres.
• Nvidia discussed its latest chips, how they are used to build high-performance computing systems, and why optical input-output will play a critical role.

Co-packaged optics and optical switching within the data centre were prominent topics at the recent ECOC 2022 conference and exhibition in Basel, Switzerland.

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OpenLight's integrated-laser silicon photonics platform

• OpenLight is an independent silicon photonics company backed by Synopsys and Juniper Networks 
• The company was created by carving out the silicon photonics arm of Juniper
• The establishment of OpenLight and its open platform highlights the growing maturity of silicon photonics as new applications emerge beyond datacom and telecom

Thomas Mader, OpenLight

OpenLight is coming to market with an open silicon photonics platform that includes integrated lasers and gain blocks.

Juniper has a long relationship with Synopsys, using its electronic-photonic design automation (EPDA) tools.

So when Juniper said it was spinning out its silicon photonics group, Synopsys was keen to partner.

The result is OpenLight, of which Synopsys has a 75 per cent stake costing $67.5 million.

Thomas Mader, OpenLight's chief operating officer and formerly head of Juniper's silicon photonics unit, says OpenLight is the first company to offer an open platform that includes monolithically integrated lasers, optical amplifiers and modulators. 

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Intel adds multi-channel lasers to its silicon photonics toolbox

Intel has developed an 8-lane parallel-wavelength laser array to tackle the growing challenge of feeding data to integrated circuits (ICs). 

Haisheng Rong

Optical input-output (I/O) promises to solve the challenge of getting data into and out of high-end silicon devices. 

These ICs include Ethernet switch chips and 'XPUs', shorthand for processors (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs) and data processor units (DPUs).

The laser array is Intel's latest addition to its library of silicon photonics devices. 

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Intel sets a course for scalable optical input-output

• Intel is working with several universities to create building-block circuits to address its optical input-output (I/O) needs for the next decade-plus.

• By 2024 the company wants to demonstrate the technologies achieving 4 terabits-per-second (Tbps) over a fibre at 0.25 picojoules-per-bit (pJ/b).

Intel has teamed up with seven universities to address the optical I/0 needs for several generations of upcoming products.

The initiative, dubbed the Intel Research Center for Integrated Photonics for Data Centre Interconnects, began six months ago and is a three-year project.

No new location is involved, rather the research centre is virtual with Intel funding the research. By setting up the centre, Intel’s goal is to foster collaboration between the research groups.

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Turning to optical I/O to open up computing pinch points

Getting data in and out of chips used for modern computing has become a key challenge for designers.

Hugo Saleh

A chip may talk to a neighbouring device in the same platform or to a chip across the data centre.

The sheer quantity of data and the reaches involved - tens or hundreds of meters - is why the industry is turning to optical for a chip’s input-output (I/O).

It is this technology transition that excites Ayar Labs.

The US start-up showcased its latest TeraPHY optical I/O chiplet operating at 1 terabit-per-second (Tbps) during the OFC virtual conference and exhibition held in June.

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