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IBM has announced a revolutionary advancement in optical technology that promises to transform the operation of data centers for training and executing generative artificial intelligence (AI) models. The new co-packaged optical (CPO) technology brings optical connectivity into the internal infrastructure of data centers, enabling data transmissions at the speed of light and overcoming the limitations of traditional electrical cables.
CPO Technology: A New Era in Data Communications
Currently, optical networks dominate the external communications of data centers, but copper cables prevail internally, causing inefficiencies and high energy consumption. IBM has presented a functional prototype of CPO that offers:
- Faster AI Model Training: Up to five times faster, reducing the training time from three months to three weeks for advanced models.
- Higher Energy Efficiency: Consumes five times less than electrical interconnects, saving energy equivalent to the annual consumption of 5,000 U.S. homes for each trained model.
- Greater Reach and Capacity: Extending internal interconnections from one meter to hundreds of meters and significantly increasing bandwidth.
Notable Technical Features
IBM developed a polymer waveguide (PWG) with high-density channels that allow for 80 times greater bandwidth between chips compared to current electrical connections. Additionally:
- The technology can include up to six times more optical fibers at the edges of silicon photonic chips.
- Each fiber, three times thicker than a human hair, transmits terabits of data per second.
- The modules have passed extreme durability tests, demonstrating resilience in high humidity conditions, extreme temperatures (-40 °C to 125 °C), and mechanical flexibility.
Impact on Data Centers and AI
With this technology, IBM aims to solve one of the biggest challenges in training AI models: the inefficiency in communication between GPUs. Optical connectivity allows for faster and continuous data flow, minimizing downtime and optimizing computational resources. According to Darío Gil, senior vice president and director of research at IBM, “this advancement marks the beginning of a new era of fast and sustainable communications, essential for managing the growing workloads of generative AI.”
Leadership in Semiconductor Innovation
The CPO is part of IBM’s trajectory in technological innovation, which includes milestones such as:
- The development of the first 2-nanometer chip.
- Advancements in Nanosheet and VTFET transistors.
- Innovations in chip packaging at its facility in Bromont, Quebec, one of the largest semiconductor assembly plants in North America.
Conclusion
The CPO technology represents a disruptive change in the architecture of data centers, with immediate applications for generative AI and processing large volumes of data. This advancement not only promises to accelerate AI model performance but also redefines energy efficiency and sustainability standards in the tech industry. With its leadership in innovation, IBM continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in advanced computing.
via: IBM