Alphawave launches Connectivity business with 3nm DSP chiplets
Alphawave Semi has launched a connectivity business to tap into the boom for silicon photonics in AI datacentres with 3nm chiplets.
The first products are 3nm digital signal processors (DSPs) as known good die for PAM4 and emerging Coherent-lite modulation for 800G and 1.6T links as well as active copper cables.
Alphawave shifted from IP to shipping silicon products in 2023, and the optoelectronics products use the company’s WidEye DSP architecture and EyeQ advanced diagnostics technology for PAM4 modulation. This can enable 800G and 1.6T data links in AI datacentres on optical fibres or even copper cables.
“The addition of the Connectivity Products Group is a significant achievement as it allows us to work with any leading hyperscaler in the way they need,” said Tony Pialis, Alphawave Semi CEO. “If they need IP subsystems or chiplets for a bespoke system, we can provide it. If they want us to custom develop a silicon product, we can do that. And now, if they want to purchase a standard connectivity product powered by our leading-edge technologies, we can offer that too. This group is an important strategic asset, and I’m delighted to mark this launch to further Alphawave Semi’s mission as the next semiconductor leader in AI connectivity and compute.”
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The Cu-Wave is a PAM4 DSP for Active Electrical Cables (AEC) up to 3m long with data rates up to 1.6Tbit/s as 8 x 200G. The AW200-C can equalize up to 40dB of loss (measured bump-bump) on both the host-side and line-side interface. The AW200-C is fabricated in a 3nm CMOS technology node and is offered as Known Good Die (KGD). Alphawave Semi offers a full reference design for 1.6T AEC.
O-Wave is a 200G PAM4 DSP for Optical Retimer and Gearbox transceivers with the same specifications to support fibre links up to 2km.
Co-Wave is a Coherent-lite DSP for Optical Transceivers. This is a modulation scheme that aims to provide lower power consumption that the intensity-modulated direct detect (IM-DD) techniques generally used in datacentre optical interconnect to extend across a campus of buildings.
The AW400-O is a latency optimized Coherent-lite DSP that uses DP-QAM16 modulation to meet the needs of interconnecting AI machine clusters across data center campuses spanning up to 20km. The AW400-O DSP enables the implementation of cost-effective 800G or 1.6Tb capacity O-band Coherent-lite optical modules and includes an integrated, configurable NIST-certified security engine, which enables encryption of all links connecting one data centre to neighboring data centers within the campus.
“The industry is evolving with the rise of purpose-built data center campuses, which have been architected in response to the disruptions catalysed by mass adoption of AI versus traditional compute infrastructure. To meet the challenge, we focused our innovations into PAM4 and pioneered an investment into Coherent-lite DSPs with the aim of becoming a trusted supplier of silicon products into the growing high-speed optoelectronics semiconductor market,” said Babak Samimi, Alphawave Semi SVP & GM of the Connectivity Products Group.
“Our Team has been working diligently to enable Alphawave Semi’s pivot to develop our own connectivity silicon products by leveraging our industry-leading high-speed SerDes, high-precision analog, as well as our expertise in SoC and firmware, signal integrity management, and advanced diagnostics powered by our unique WidEye and EyeQ technologies to help support this data center evolution
“We have been working with a leading North American hyperscaler and number of key ecosystem partners that have developed solutions with our newly revealed connectivity products; and we look forward to deploying these solutions to the market over the next 12 months.”
“With a strong heritage in high-speed SerDes in leading-edge process nodes, this market entry should be highly disruptive and will be beneficial to hyperscalers,” said Vladimir Kozlov, CEO of market research firm LightCounting. “With the trend towards more distributed processing taking place over data centre campuses, the PAM4 and Coherent-lite DSP market is set for continued growth and we forecast it will reach over $4 billion dollars by 2028. Being in a select pool of companies that are currently able to provide both PAM4 and Coherent-lite products, Alphawave is well positioned.”
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