Point2 is an innovative technology company. It promises to reinvent data center efficiency with a new approach incorporating radio technology into data transmission for a faster, greener, and more efficient process. This dynamic transformation significantly improves bandwidth potential. Meanwhile, it lowers power consumption and latency to help data centers across the globe keep up with increasing demands.
The company’s groundbreaking, Made-in-America, flagship product, the e-Tube cable, has 8 of these powerful e-tube fibers. Each fiber carries more than 200 gigabits of data per second! This major breakthrough puts Point2 on the cutting edge of a race to innovate data center infrastructure. The company is increasing production to build chips for an upcoming 1.6-terabit-per-second cable. This unique cable will contain eight precision-engineered, high-performance polymer waveguides.
Innovative Technology Behind e-Tube Cables
Point2’s e-Tube cable is remarkable not just for its data transmission capabilities, but as a physical design. Each waveguide has the capacity to transmit up to 448 gigabits per second with the use of two frequencies—90GHz and 225GHz—used in tandem. This technology is a huge improvement over aging traditional copper cables. e Tube optical cable occupies the same space as only a 32-gauge copper cable—yet provides transmission reach that is up to 20 times farther.
Moreover, Point2’s system runs with incredible efficiency, using just a third of the power usually needed by optical systems. What makes this system truly remarkable is its cost-effectiveness. It is only one-third the cost of conventional optical options and provides latency rates up to one-thousandth of today’s levels. Point2’s cable uses a new design that integrates a single, tiny silicon chip at either end. These complex chips take inbound digital information and produce outgoing modulated millimeter-wave frequencies. An antenna subsequently converts this data into radio waves that flow into the waveguide, drastically improving the efficiency of data transmission.
“Customers love fiber. But what they hate is the photonics.” – Dave Welch
This creative combination of radio technology and high-defined materials may prove to provide Point2 a competitive advantage against existing optical technologies in transceiver-processor packages. It doesn’t just represent the next evolution of communications.
Collaborations and Competitors in the Market
Point2 isn’t the only organization working to improve the state of data center connectivity, either. AttoTude, a spirited newcomer to the sector, advocates for a hybrid approach. This method combines advantages from multiple technologies and brings in completely novel elements. AttoTude has since developed these key pieces, including a digital data-chip and a terahertz-signal generator. Now they’re combining the best of these two technologies to offer a flexible, hybrid, technology-agnostic package that can address the rapidly-changing demands of today’s data centers.
Recognized as an AEC pioneer, Don Barnetson—senior vice president and head of product at Credo—has made tremendous progress in building the AEC. This groundbreaking new technology drives 800 Gb/s for distances up to seven meters. Taken together, these advancements show an encouraging trend among industry actors towards supporting and deploying more efficient transmission technologies.
Nvidia is responsible for a lot of the hype around generative AI — and with good reason. The company aims to increase the maximum number of GPUs per system from 72 to 576 by 2027, necessitating more advanced data transmission solutions. Nvidia and Broadcom have both invested heavily in engineering their optical transceiver systems. Their goal is to make sure these systems are manufacturable and reliable to be able to operate next to the processors in the same package.
“You start with passive copper, and you do everything you can to run in passive copper as long as you can.” – Don Barnetson
Our competitive landscape illustrates that need for innovation is great. It’s no wonder that companies are racing to keep up with the skyrocketing demand for new data processing capabilities.
The Future of Data Transmission
Point2’s e-Tube cable technology is about to become a game changer for data centers around the world. And it can get itself up to 20 meters away. Concurrently, it supports wide high-speed transmission rates, putting it a step ahead of current technologies that are unable to keep up with high demands for data.
As industry leaders like Dave Welch point out, “Electronics have been demonstrated to be inherently more reliable than optics.” This claim highlights some of the reliability advantages that Point2’s technology could deliver compared to existing optical solutions.
“If I didn’t have to be at [an optical wavelength], where should I be?” – Dave Welch
The always-changing face of technology in the area of data transmission underscores the need for innovation in order to address the challenges of tomorrow. Point2 is dedicated to working to incorporate radio technology into data center operations. This tack would likely produce explosive gains in both productivity and efficiency.