AI tide could raise boats in optical industry

Omdia's Ian Redpath joins the podcast to discuss how the optical industry is stepping up to the challenge of providing the necessary connectivity inside and outside the data center to power AI workloads.

Kelsey Ziser, Senior Editor

March 26, 2024

At a Glance

  • Optical community has a big role to play in supporting GPU connectivity and AI workloads (01:37)
  • How the industry is reducing power consumption within the data center (03:20)
  • Updates on 800G services (06:53)

AI was "front and center" in conversations at the Optica Executive Forum during the OFC conference, says Ian Redpath, research director for Omdia.

Redpath joins the Light Reading podcast to discuss how the optical industry is stepping up to the challenge of providing the necessary connectivity inside and outside the data center to power AI workloads. He also explains how the industry is addressing the need to reduce power consumption within the data center, new developments around 3 nanometer and 5 nanometer chips and what's next for 800G services. 

Click on the caption button for a lightly edited transcript.

Here are a few topics we cover:

  • Optical community has a big role to play in supporting GPU connectivity and AI workloads (01:37)

  • Challenges to bringing coherent optical technology into the data center (02:03)

  • How the industry is reducing power consumption within the data center (03:20)

  • Where the optical market is headed for 3 nanometer and 5 nanometer chip solutions (05:12)

  • Updates on 800G services (06:53)

About the Author

Kelsey Ziser

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Kelsey is a senior editor at Light Reading, co-host of the Light Reading podcast, and host of the "What's the story?" podcast.

Her interest in the telecom world started with a PR position at Connect2 Communications, which led to a communications role at the FREEDM Systems Center, a smart grid research lab at N.C. State University. There, she orchestrated their webinar program across college campuses and covered research projects such as the center's smart solid-state transformer.

Kelsey enjoys reading four (or 12) books at once, watching movies about space travel, crafting and (hoarding) houseplants.

Kelsey is based in Raleigh, N.C.

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