Today, in the fast-paced world of data centers, efficiency and speed are everything. Recent breakthroughs in cable technology now provide exciting, new alternatives. Each of these advancements instead address the chronic problems associated with copper and optical fiber networks. Credo, Point2 Technology and AttoTude are among the cutting-edge innovators revolutionizing this space. Or they are developing new security innovations that could revolutionize the way we secure sensitive data across our critical infrastructures.
Although photonics can transmit data over long distances, they are limited in high power consumption, temperature sensitivity and reliability. According to industry experts, these constraints frequently inhibit data centers from operating at peak performance. At the same time, demand for bandwidth continues to explode. With Nvidia’s call to ramp up GPU output more than five-fold by 2027, the industry seems poised to accept other technologies to fulfill these changing requirements.
The Challenges of Current Technologies
Photonics has a number of long-standing shortcomings that still prevents it from not penetrating more broadly. As a rough rule of thumb, high power consumption usually only represents around 10% of a data center’s total compute budget. Further, photonics systems are immediately impacted by temperature changes and are not known for long-term reliability.
Don Barnetson of Credo highlights a critical aspect of the ongoing challenges, stating, “You start with passive copper, and you do everything you can to run in passive copper as long as you can.” This is indicative of the first step most data center operators take, as they drive efficiency to its limits before considering other options.
Bandwidth demands on copper cables, particularly coax, are skyrocketing toward the terabit-per-second level. As David Kuo of Point2 Technology explains, there are physical constraints on these legacy cables. He notes that “we call it the copper cliff,” referring to the challenges encountered when scaling up to higher bandwidths. The skin effect presents significant challenges to high-frequency signals. At 10 GHz, the skin depth reduces to just 0.65 micrometers. Taken together, these factors create a sense of urgency for more efficient and advanced transmission technologies.
Innovative Solutions from Credo, Point2 Technology, and AttoTude
Credo has made strides in developing an active electrical cable (AEC) capable of delivering 800 Gb/s over distances of up to 7 meters. Such innovations permit data-center operators to continue those high speed increases. It addresses power consumption issues that tend to be associated with classical optical systems.
Point2 Technology was founded to help fill that critical gap between copper and optical technologies. Their e-cables each contain eight e-Tube fibers, each one able to transport more than 200 gigabits per second. Their testing with NTT has allowed the company to expand plans to start manufacturing chips beyond a 1.6-terabit-per-second cable consisting of eight thin polymer waveguides. Point2’s technology is designed to consume one-third of optical’s power and costs only one-third as much, while offering significantly lower latency—up to one-thousandth the latency of conventional options.
AttoTude has been doing some impressive work in this space. The firm has independently developed the building blocks, including a digital data chip and a terahertz-signal generator. Dave Welch from AttoTude emphasizes the accuracy and high level of detail that their waveguide technology delivers. Gowtham’s most excited about it eventually transmitting data over distances of 20 meters or longer. He notes that “customers love fiber. But what they hate is the photonics,” reflecting a general sentiment in the industry regarding the complexities of photonics systems.
The Future Landscape of Data Transmission
As Consumer technology companies like Nvidia and Broadcom are actually deploying pluggable optical transceivers within the same package as their processors. This is perhaps the most telling indication of a larger trend toward embedding cutting-edge technologies into current processes. This integration can help lead to greater efficiency and performance of data centers around the world.
Infrared laser light requires exceptional precision in alignment with the core of an optical fiber, usually only around 10 µm wide. This increased system precision introduces an additional level of concern to optical systems. Welch further underscores the reliability of electronic systems compared to optics by stating, “Electronics have been demonstrated to be inherently more reliable than optics.” This level of reliability would be a key enabler of bigger changes that could go through to data center infrastructure.
As demands for increasingly high-bandwidth solutions outstrip supply, new technologies will need to be more quickly adapted to new challenges. The partnership between Point2 Technology and AttoTude is a great example of an industry-wide movement toward developing innovative solutions that are user-friendly. Their approach centers on a technology that would serendipitously position itself between the advantages of legacy copper and optical systems. This technology is remarkably distinct from either.