IBM shares breakthrough in co-packaged optics that improves speed and efficiency for AI

Dec. 9 (Portaltic/EP) –

IBM has shared a progress on co-packaged optics that offers improvements in speed and energy efficiency for training and running artificial intelligence (AI) models.

IBM researchers have developed a new process for co-packaged optics technology that allows connectivity within data centers at the speed of light using opticscomplementing current short-range electrical cables.

Fiber optic technology is currently used to transport data at high speeds over long distances, for example to manage global communications traffic, using light instead of electricity.

Fiber optics are also used in data centers, but within the racks – the structures that allow electronic equipment to be housed and managed – the data is communicated to through copper electrical cables.

This difference is significant because, as IBM explains, in data centers copper cables connect GPU accelerators that remain idle for a long time, waiting for other devices to send data in a distributed training process.

The new process enables high-speed optical connectivity inside data centers, allowing increase communications bandwidthminimizing GPU downtime and accelerating AI processing, as reported in a press release.

IBM cites among its advantages a decrease in energy consumption up to five times less compared to mid-range electrical interconnectors, also achieving savings equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 5,000 American homes for each trained AI model. It would also help train a large language model up to five times faster.