Working at the limit of optical transmission performance

• Expect to see new optical transmission records at the upcoming ECOC 2023 conference. 
• Keysight Technologies' chart plots the record-setting optical transmission systems of recent years.
• The chart reveals optical transmission performance issues and the importance of the high-speed converters between the analogue and digital domains for test equipment and, by implication, for coherent digital signal processors (DSPs).

Graphic explanation

Shown is the net bit rate plotted against the baud rate. Also shown are lines with the number of bits per symbol. These are not the bit resolution of the DAC but the bits for both polarisations. For example, 14bit/symbol refers to 7-bit per polarisation. The DACs making up the transmission systems plotted are either 6-bit or 8-bit. Source: Keysight

Engineers keep advancing optical systems to send more data across an optical fibre.

It requires advances in optical and electronic components that can process faster, higher-bandwidth signals, and that includes the most essential electronics part of all: the coherent DSP chip. 

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Webinar: Scaling AI clusters with optical interconnects

A reminder that this Thursday, September 14th, 8:00-9:00 am PT, I will be taking part in a webcast as part of the OCP Educational Webinar Programme that explores the future of AI computing with optical interconnects.

Data and computation drive AI success, and the hyperscaler are racing to build massive AI accelerator-based compute clusters. The impact of large language models and ChatGPT has turbocharged this race. Scaling demands innovation in accelerator chips, node linkages, fabrics, and topology.

For this webinar, industry experts will discuss the challenge of scaling AI clusters. The other speakers include Cliff Grossner Ph.D., Yang Chen, and Bob Shine. To register, please click here 

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The market opportunity for linear drive optics

A key theme at OFC earlier this year that surprised many was linear drive optics. Its attention at the optical communications and networking event was intriguing because linear drive - based on using remote silicon to drive photonics - is not new.

Scott Wilkinson

"I spoke to one company that had a [linear drive] demo on the show floor," says Scott Wilkinson, lead analyst for networking components at Cignal AI. "They had been working on the technology for four years and were taken aback; they weren't expecting people to come by and ask about it. "

The cause of the buzz? Andy Bechtolsheim, famed investor, co-founder and chief development officer of network switching firm Arista Networks and, before that, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems.

"Andy came out and said this is a big deal, and that got many people talking about it," says Wilkinson, author of a recent linear drive market research report.

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Agent of change

Dave Welch on how entrepreneurial problem-solving skills can tackle some of society's biggest challenges

Dave Welch is best known for being the founder and chief innovation officer at Infinera, the optical equipment specialist. But he has a history of involvement in social causes.

In 2012, Welch went to court to fight for the educational rights of children in schools in California, a story covered by newspapers in the US and abroad and featured on the front cover of Time magazine.

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The long arm of PCI Express

Optical is being added as a second physical medium to the PCI Express (PCIe) data transfer protocol.

PCI Express is an electrical standard, but now the Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) has created a working group to standardise PCIe’s delivery optically.

PCI-SIG is already developing copper cabling specifications for the PCI Express 5.0 and 6.0 standards.

Source: PCI-SIG

Since each generation of PCIe doubles the data transfer rate, PCI-SIG member companies want copper cabling to help with the design of high-speed PCIe interconnects on a printed circuit board (PCB), between PCBs, and between racks (see diagram).

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Modelling the Human Brain with specialised CPUs

Part 2: University of Manchester's Professor Steve Furber discusses the design considerations for developing hardware to mimic the workings of the human brain.

The designed hardware, the Arm-based Spiking Neural Network Architecture (SpiNNAker) chip, is being used to understand the working of the brain and for industrial applications to implement artificial intelligence (AI)

Professor Steve Furber

Steve Furber has spent his career researching computing systems but his interests have taken him on a path different to the mainstream.

As principal designer at Acorn Computers, he developed a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor architecture when microprocessors used a complex instruction set.

The RISC design became the foundational architecture for the processor design company Arm.

As an academic, Furber explored asynchronous logic when the digital logic of commercial chips was all clock-driven.

He then took a turn towards AI during a period when AI research was in the doldrums.

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From 8-bit micros to modelling the brain

Part 1: An interview with computer scientist, Professor Steve Furber

Steve Furber is renowned for architecting the 32-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processor from Acorn Computer, which became the founding architecture for Arm.

Arm processors have played a recurring role in Furber's career. He and his team developed a clockless - asynchronous - version of the Arm, while a specialist Arm design has been the centrepiece building block for a project to develop a massively-parallel neural network computer.

Professor Steve Furber

Origins

I arrive at St Pancras International station early enough to have a coffee in the redeveloped St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, the architecturally striking building dating back to the 19th century that is part of the station.

The train arrives on time at East Midlands Parkway, close to Nottingham, where Professor Steve Furber greets me and takes me to his home.

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