With the rapid development of artificial intelligence and large models, the global intelligent computing center is developing rapidly with a strong momentum. However, existing networks face great challenges due to the application requirements of high speed and ultra-low latency. To this end, the industry has begun to pay attention to new solutions such as all-optical interconnect. Optical communicationsAs the foundation of the digital economy, it has made continuous progress in terms of high speed, large capacity, intelligence, and low power consumption in recent years. Of particular interest is the emergence of CPO technology, which is seen as the ideal form of high-speed products in the futureOptical communicationsA new technical route has been opened. CPO technology achieves a high degree of integration by co-packaging and exchanging ASIC chips and silicon photonics engines on the same high-speed motherboard, effectively reducing signal attenuation, system power consumption, and cost. According to NVIDIA at the Open Compute Project (OCP) Summit in 2022, the bandwidth required for AI to connect to the network will surge by 32 times. And continue to use traditionOptical transceiverswill result in a doubling of the cost and an additional 20-25% power consumption. In contrast, CPO technology is expected to reduce existing pluggabilityOptical transceiversThe architecture consumes 50% of the power, demonstrating a significant competitive advantage. According to market research firm Lightcounting**,Data CentersWill be an early adopter of CPO packaging technology. Extra-largeData CentersCPO equipment revenue is expected to account for 80% of the total market revenue. Data CentersThe exchange rate will drive the deployment of CPOs to a large extent. With the development of AI clusters and HPC architectures, CPOs are expected to be widely deployed in GPUs, TPUs, and GPUsEthernet, Infiniband or NVLinkSwitchesAbove. In addition, many FPGA-based accelerators are also expected to benefit from CPO technology. According to CIR**, the CPO market size is expected to reach $2.7 billion by 2027.
Amplification: CPO technology is an innovative optoelectronic integration technology, which is achieved by tightly packaging a switch chip and an optical engineSignal transmissionThe distance is shortened, which improves the transmission efficiency. Compared to traditionOptical transceivers, CPO in the sameData transfer rateThe power consumption can be reduced by about 50%, which solves the problem that the power interconnection cannot greatly improve the data transmission capacity due to energy consumption limitations in high-speed and high-density interconnection transmission scenarios. In addition, the silicon photonics technology adopted by the CPO has significant advantages in terms of cost and size. Its core purpose is to replace the traditional pluggableOptical transceivers, by co-encapsulating the optical chip and the switch chip on the substrate, further reduces power consumption and increases bandwidth. CPO technology is mainly used in:Data CentersofEthernetInternet. From pluggableOptical transceiversDuring the evolution to the CPO, it can be clearly seen that the distance between the optical engine and the switch chip is constantly decreasing. At present, CPO technology is still in its infancy, starting from 1Starting from 6T, the traditional pluggable rate upgrade may have reached the limit, so the subsequent optical interconnection upgrade may turn to the CPO solution.
There are three core technical challenges to the realization of CPO technology: high-density optoelectronic (driver) chip design technology, high-density and high-bandwidth connector technology, and packaging and heat dissipation technology. Despite these challenges, CPO's packaging approach still shows great potential and is expected to be a high-performance solution to meet the high computing power needs of AI. The CPO program is also expected to be addressed in recent yearsserdesDoubling bandwidth and channel count brings power consumption and heat dissipation issues that can be savedSwitchesInterior space. In the long run, CPOs are also expected to achieve cost reductions due to the reduction in the use of optical components.
The market prospect for CPO technology is very broad. According to **, the CPO market size will exceed $1.3 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $2.7 billion by 2027. The early adopters of CPO technology will be primarily:Data Centers, especially oversizedData CentersData CentersThe exchange rate will drive the deployment of the CPO. In addition, with the development of AI clusters, HPC architectures, and FPGA-based accelerators, CPOs are expected to be deployed on more devices, such as GPUs, TPUs, etcEthernet, Infiniband or NVLinkSwitches。Many companies at home and abroad are actively deploying in the CPO field, including chip mold companies, equipment manufacturers and end users. A major domestic manufacturerHuawei, Tencent, Alibaba, etc. have begun to actively stock or purchase related equipment, and have applied CPO technology in some markets. Domestic headOptical transceiversManufacturers have also laid out in the CPO field and launched some CPO-related products and solutions.
However, CPO technology still faces some key technical challenges, such as how to choose the appropriate optical engine modulation scheme, how to effectively package the internal components of the optical engine, and how to achieve high-coupling efficiency light source coupling that is feasible for mass production. Therefore, in the further development of CPO technology, new technological breakthroughs need to be sought. With the continuous maturity and commercialization of CPO technology, it will promoteOptical communicationsThe upgrading and ecology of the entire industryChainThe restructuring ofOptical transceiversThe market brings a new competitive landscape. At the same time, the demand for CPO technology in the rapid development of AI and the expansion of downstream application scenarios is also expected to increase rapidly.
In summary, the CPO technology as:Optical communicationsAn innovative technology in the field with huge market potential. It can reduce system power consumption and cost, improve data transmission efficiency, and meet the needs of high-speed and high-density interconnection. At present, CPO technology is mainly used in:Data CentersofEthernetnetwork, but with AI andBig dataWith the rapid development of other fields, CPO technology is expected to be applied in more fields. However, CPO technology still faces some challenges, such as high-density optoelectronic chip design, connector technology, and packaging heat dissipation technology. In the future, it is necessary to overcome these challenges and continuously promote the innovation of CPO technology and further expand its application fields.