AI bottleneck-breaker: China’s Huawei touts high-speed optical module
Company claims it has the industry’s first 7.2-terabit-per-second NPO module, as firms race to set next-generation AI infrastructure standards
The Shenzhen-based tech giant showcased what it called the industry’s first 7.2-terabit-per-second (Tbps) near-packaged optics (NPO) product at the China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE) in Shenzhen this week.
The technology replaces traditional copper wiring with light-based signals to shuttle vast amounts of data between AI processors at higher speeds and lower power consumption than current systems.
As AI clusters grow to include thousands of interlinked processors, conventional copper connections are hitting physical limits in bandwidth, transmission distance and power efficiency. NPO aims to solve this by bringing optical components closer to network switching chips, shortening electrical connections and reducing signal loss and power consumption.