Intel Labs recently opened the Intel Research Center for Integrated Photonics for Data Center Interconnects. The center’s mission is to accelerate optical input/output (I/O) technology innovation in performance scaling and integration with a specific focus on photonics technology and devices, CMOS circuits and link architecture, and package integration and fiber coupling.

The ever-increasing movement of data from server to server is taxing the capabilities of today’s network infrastructure. The industry is quickly approaching the practical limits of electrical I/O performance. As demand continues to increase, electrical I/O power-performance scaling is not keeping pace and will soon limit available power for compute operations. This performance barrier can be overcome by integrating compute silicon and optical I/O, a key research center focus.

“At Intel Labs, we’re strong believers that no one organization can successfully turn all the requisite innovations into research reality. By collaborating with some of the top scientific minds from across the United States, Intel is opening the doors for the advancement of integrated photonics for the next generation of compute interconnect. We look forward to working closely with these researchers to explore how we can overcome impending performance barriers,” explains James Jaussi, senior principal engineer and director of the PHY Research Lab in Intel Labs.

Intel has recently demonstrated progress in critical technology building blocks for integrated photonics. Light generation, amplification, detection, modulation, CMOS interface circuits and package integration are essential to achieve the required performance to replace electrical as the primary high-bandwidth off-package interface.

Additionally, optical I/O has the potential to dramatically outperform electrical in the key performance metrics of reach, bandwidth density, power consumption and latency. Further innovations are necessary on several fronts to extend optical performance while lowering power and cost.

The Intel Research Center for Integrated Photonics for Data Center Interconnects brings together universities and world-renowned researchers to accelerate optical I/O technology innovation in performance scaling and integration. The research vision is to explore a technology scaling path that satisfies energy efficiency and bandwidth performance requirements for the next decade and beyond.

Intel understands that academia is at the heart of technological innovation and seeks to catalyze innovation in research at leading academic institutions worldwide. Today’s announcement reflects Intel’s ongoing commitment to collaborate with academia in developing new and advanced technologies that improve and further computing as we know it.

The researchers participating in the Research Center include John Bowers, UCSB, Pavan Kumar Hanumolu, U. Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Arka Majumdar, U. Washington, Samuel Palermo, Texas A&M U., Alan Wang, Oregon State U., Ming Wu, UC Berkeley, and S.J. Ben Yoo, UC Davis.