Ranovus, AMD demo enhanced co-packaged optics for AI/ML at OFC 2023
Ranovus Inc. and AMD collaborated at OFC 2023 in San Diego this week on an interoperability demonstration of AMD’s Versal adaptive SoCs co-packaged with Ranovus’ Odin 800G direct-drive optical engine with and third-party 800G DR8+ retimed pluggable modules. The demonstration builds upon a co-packaging effort the two companies unveiled at OFC 2022 (see "Ranovus, AMD to demo Xilinx Versal ACAP with CPO").
RANOVUS’ low-latency Odin optical engine is built on GlobalFoundries’ Fotonix monolithic RF/CMOS silicon photonics (SiPh) platform. It leverages the company’s RF CMOS, silicon photonics, laser, and advanced packaging technologies for volume manufacturing. Ranovus asserts the Odin optical engine can be applied to co-packaged optics, near-packaged optics, and pluggable OSFP/QSFP-DD/OSFP-XD optical transceiver designs.
This year’s demonstration focused on both full 800G capabilities and interoperability, two features that were not part of last year’s demonstration. “We announced the first generation of our Odin optical interconnect at OFC 2022 for proprietary AI/ML applications. We are thrilled to showcase our standards-based Odin optical interconnect product with 5pJ/bit for a direct-drive CPO solution,” said Dr. Christoph Schulien, head of systems and high-speed IC R&D at Ranovus. “Its inherent versatility enables hyperscale data center providers to drastically reduce power consumption and optimize density and cost as they deploy novel hybrid data center architectures in response to the insatiable growth in AI/ML workloads.”
“Ranovus’ demonstration of interoperability between our Versal adaptive SoCs co-packaged with Odin 800G direct-drive CPO 2.0 and third party 800G DR8+ retimed pluggable module underlines the flexibility and scalability of Ranovus’ technology,” added Yohan Frans, vice president, engineering at AMD. “We are proud of our collaboration with Ranovus in demonstrating the performance and versatility of monolithic silicon photonics interconnects as data center and 5G customers deploy highly efficient and cost-effective systems for next generation workloads.”
“RANOVUS’ demonstration of interoperability between CPO and pluggable modules is a key proof point that their interconnect technology supports the flexibility and scalability with the lowest power consumption sought by hyperscalers as they optimize their data centers for AI/ML workloads” commented Vladimir Kozlov the founder and CEO of LIGHTCOUNTING, via a Ranovus press release.
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.
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