During this week’s ECOC 2024 tradeshow, optical vendors are showing off wares that offer lower power and greater capacity to accommodate the growth of hyperscale data center operators delivering AI services and traditional providers expanding broadband services.
In our final installment of the ECOC 2024 product showcase, we highlight new innovations from Broadcom, Junkosha and Sivers Semiconductors. Also, look at our Day 1 and Day 2 highlights.
Junkosha showcases mmWave cabling solution
As the data center industry – critical to AI and the broader digital ecosystem – grapples with surging demands and escalating network traffic, Junkosha is leveraging its pedigree in high-frequency analog microwave and mmWave transmission performance to meet these challenges in the digital world. The company said cable insertion loss is minimized due to the new product’s structure, which is optimized for measurement up to 110GHz with 1psec skew matching. Combining the lowest loss and 1psec precision skew match enables accurate monitoring of “Eye Diagrams,” helping engineers quickly identify problems such as timing errors, amplitude issues, and signal distortion. A Safety-Lock mechanism is available to preserve the 1.0mm(m) connector’s central pin.
Sivers Semiconductors introduces 16-wavelength WDM laser
In collaboration with Ayar Labs, Sivers Semiconductors has introduced its CW-WDM MSA-compliant 16-wavelength light source. During its demonstration with Ayar Labs at ECOC 2024, it showcased its 16-wavelength distributed feedback (DFB) laser array, which was integrated into the Ayar Labs SuperNova™ light source. As foundational AI models grow in complexity, they demand increased GPU/accelerator processing power and memory capacity. By integrating optical I/O directly within the GPU or accelerator package, this solution enables communication across the GPU cluster, ensuring scalable and efficient infrastructure to meet the expanding demands of AI workloads. Optical connections also reduce power consumption while delivering 5-10x faster communication speeds within the cluster, optimizing GPU utilization and accelerating AI performance.
Broadcom delivers 200G/lane DSP for Gen AI infrastructure
Broadcom announced the general availability of Sian™2, 200 Gbps per lane (200G/lane) PAM-4 DSP PHY. Sian2 features 200G/lane electrical and optical interfaces to augment the Sian DSP that supports 100 Gbps electrical and 200Gbps optical interfaces. Sian and Sian2 DSPs enable pluggable modules with 200G/lane interfaces that are foundational to connect next-generation AI clusters. Further, Sian2 and Sian PHY and Broadcom’s leading-edge 200G/lane optics, including electro-absorption modulated laser (EML) and continuous wave laser (CWL), enhance performance and power consumption, enabling data center operators to scale AI workloads cost-effectively.
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Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategies of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report across their websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products.