oDAC: Boosting data centre speeds with less power

Academics have developed an optical digital-to-analogue converter (oDAC) that promises to rethink how high-speed optical transmission is done.

Professor Ioannis Tomkos

Conceived under the European Commission-funded Flex-Scale project for 6G front-haul, the oDAC also promises terabit links inside the data centre.

The oDAC is expected to deliver a 40 per cent power savings for a 1.6 terabit optical transmitter, which is the ‘send’ path of an optical module.

“It might not be not 50 or 60 per cent, but in this field, even a 25 per cent power saving turns heads,” says Ioannis Tomkos, a professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Patras, Greece, one of the researchers leading the work.

The first proof-of-concept oDAC photonic integrated circuit (PIC) has sent 250 gigabits per second (Gbps) over a single wavelength as part of the European Proteus programme.

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Adtran broadens its OLS and access module offerings

Adtran has unveiled two products before the OFC show in San Francisco taking place at the end of the month. 

One is a 50 gigabit-per second (Gbps) SFP56 optical transceiver that uses 4-level pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM-4) for 5G front-haul and enhanced broadband applications.  

The second product is the FSP 3000 IP OLS, a compact open line system (OLS) designed for point-to-point links between sites 120km apart. 

The OLS has been developed to simplify the setting up of dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical links.    

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Silicon photonics grapples with 3D packaging demands

Hesham Taha (pictured), CEO of start-up Teramount, is more upbeat about silicon photonics than ever. But, as he outlines, challenges remain.

Hesham Taha is putting in the miles. The CEO of Teramount has been travelling to the East and West to meet with companies.

Termount is working closely with customers and partners adopting its technology that adds fibre to silicon photonics chips. 

"We're shipping units to customers and partners, and we need to be close to them as they integrate our components and address the challenges of integration," says Taha.

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Podcast: Reflections on the upcoming OFC 2025

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OFC Rump Session: Reimagining global comms

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Imagine a world plunged into digital silence. No texts, calls, emails, or internet.

At this year's OFC conference in San Francisco, three teams of telecommunications experts will tackle a provocative thought experiment as part of the Rump Session: if Earth's entire communication infrastructure vanished overnight, how would they rebuild it? 

With a clean slate and ten years until implementation, the teams will outline what they consider is the ideal replacement global network.

The Rump Session's audience will then choose the best solution.

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