IBM unveiled a next-generation optics technology CPO, bringing optics’ speed and capacity inside data centers

IBM has unveiled a new process for co-packaged optics (CPO), the next generation of optics technology, to direct the process of how data centers train and run generative AI models, improved.

CPO enables connectivity within data centers at the speed of light through optics to complement existing short-reach electrical wires. IBM first publicly announced a successful polymer optical waveguide (PWG) to power this technology.

IBM researchers have shown how CPO will redefine the way the computing industry transmits high-bandwidth data between chips, circuit boards, and servers.

Today, fiber optic technology carries data at high speeds across long distances, managing nearly all the world’s commerce and communications traffic with light instead of electricity.

Although data centers use fiber optics for their external communications networks, racks in data centers still predominantly run communications on copper-based electrical wires. These wires connect GPU accelerators that may spend more than half of their time idle, waiting for data from other devices in a large, distributed training process, which can incur significant expense and energy.

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IBM researchers have demonstrated a way to bring optics’ speed and capacity inside data centers. In a technical paper, IBM introduces a new CPO prototype module that can enable high-speed optical connectivity.

This technology could significantly increase the bandwidth of data center communications, minimizing GPU downtime while drastically accelerating AI processing.

“As generative AI demands more energy and processing power, the data center must evolve – and co-packaged optics can make these data centers future-proof,” said Dario Gil, SVP and Director of Research at IBM. “With this breakthrough, tomorrow’s chips will communicate much like how fiber optics cables carry data in and out of data centers, ushering in a new era of faster, more sustainable communications that can handle the AI workloads of the future.”