Lumentum's optical circuit switch for AI data centres

Part 3: Data Centre Switching

The resurgence of optical circuit switches for use in data centres is gaining momentum, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) workloads that require scalable connectivity.

Peter Roorda

Lumentum is one of several companies that showcased an optical circuit switch at the OFC event in San Francisco in March.

Lumentum's R300 switch connects optically the 300 input ports to any of the 300 output ports. The optical circuit switch uses micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), tiny mirrors that move electrostatically, to direct light from an input port to one of the 300 output ports.

The R300 addresses the network needs of AI data centres, helping link large numbers of AI accelerator chips such as graphics processor units (GPUs).

Click to read more ...

Oriole’s fast optical reconfigurable network

Part 1: Data Centre Switching

• Start-up Oriole Networks has developed a photonic network to link numerous accelerator chips in an artificial intelligence (AI) data centre.

• The fast photonic network is reconfigurable every 100 nanoseconds and is designed to replace tiers of electrical switches.

• Oriole says its photonic networking saves considerable power and ensures the network is no longer a compute bottleneck.

Georgios Zervas, CTO of Oriole Networks.

In a London office bathed in spring sunlight, the team from Oriole Networks, a University College London (UCL) spin-out, detailed its vision for transforming AI and high-performance computing (HPC) data centres.

Oriole has developed a networking solution, dubbed Prism, that uses fast reconfigurable optical circuit switches to replace the tiers of electrical packet switches used to connect racks of AI processors in the data centre.

Click to read more ...