NTT looks to 15Tbit/s chiplet optical interconnects
NTT in Japan has set up a subsidiary to develop a short range 15Tbit/s optical transceiver for chiplet interconnects.
The co-packaged optical and electronic technologies being developed by NTT Innovative Devices (ID) are aimed at combining photonic and electronic hardware in the data centre and in devices, including smartphones.
The roadmap for the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) initiative, NTT’s next-generation communications and computing infrastructure, has three elements: an all-photonics network, digital twin computing and the Cognitive Foundation.
NTT ID has been formed out of NTT Electronics and an R&D unit within NTT Laboratories with manufacturing in Japan and sales companies in the United States, Europe, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. It currently employs more than 500 employees.
“The creation of NTT Innovative Devices marks a major milestone in a global deployment of photonics-based networking and computing,” said president and CEO, Hidehiro Tsukano. “Each device manufactured by our organization is a testament to decades of fundamental research and development undertaken by NTT’s scientists and our collaborators.”
The company is currently manufacturing the second-generation iteration of the PEC devices named CoPKG. CoPKG, which combines digital signal processing (DSP) and Silicon Photonics based optical circuits into one device, operates with a transmission capacity of 0.4Tbps to 0.8Tbps across transmission distances of 40 to 300 kilometers.
The company plans to manufacture a third-generation device in 2025 with an optical engine operating at a transmission capacity of 3.2Tbps across a transmission distance of between 10 meters to 2 kilometers.
The next version in 2028 will have transmission speeds of 5Tbit/s in a 5mm device and for transmission up to 1km, while the fifth generation device in 2032 will be 2mm wide with 15Tbit/s over 1cm.
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While current-generation PEC devices from NTT Innovation are built for implementation in relatively long distance communications and data centre equipment, future implementation is planned for use within data centres, with future generations of PEC devices for servers, vehicles, personal computers and other devices including smartphones.
The All-Photonics Network (APN) will support data processing 125 times greater than networks today by volume), end-to-end latency reduced by over 200 times and power consumption 100 times more efficient.
The Digital Twin Computing (DTC) is an extension of conventional digital twins that uses photonics-based computational capabilities to perform calculations on virtual models of objects and humans to accurately make predictions about the future.
Cognitive Foundation (CF) is autonomous control of network resources including cloud, edge, networks and devices based on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The IOWN initiative is supported by over 120 leading technology companies globally through the IOWN Global Forum, led by founding members NTT, Intel and SONY. NTT and the IOWN Global Forum are targeting the commercial realization of IOWN by 2030.
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