Nubis Communications and Alphawave Semi have teamed up to showcase a PCIe 6.0 interconnection using an optical link. The demonstration used Alphawave’s PCIe 6.0 controller and Nubis’s linear optical engine, with the main goal of demonstrating the companies’ ability to enable next-generation 64 GT/s data center connectivity.
The demonstration features an Alphawave Semi PCIe subsystem based on the PiCORE Controller IP and PipeCORE PHY that drives and receives PCIe 6.0 traffic through a Nubis XT1600 linear optical engine. This configuration achieves PCIe 6.0 x8 optical link at 64 GT/s per fiber, without retimers. The demonstration showcases the technical feasibility and high-speed capabilities of this PCIe over custom optical solution.
“Our high level of integration with 16 full-duplex lanes in a single low-power, low-latency optical engine is an excellent match with PCIe x16 maximum bandwidth for next-generation computing and storage deployments,” said Scott Schube, Vice President of Marketing at Nubis Communications. “Our demonstration of the Nubis XT1600 linear optical engine and the Alphawave Semi’s PCIe 6.0 controller and PHY IP shows the feasibility of an optical PCIe 6.0 x8 link at 64 GT/s over fiber optic.”
Optical PCIe technology can significantly extend link distances without sacrificing bandwidth, compared to traditional copper cables. This feature is crucial to support larger clusters of AI/ML servers, distributed across multiple nodes, and paves the way for innovation in new disaggregated network architectures.
Sampling of the Nubis XT1600 linear optical engine has already begun and interested parties can contact the company. However, it should be noted that the Nubis and Alphawave solution is a customized solution that has nothing to do with the PCI-SIG Optical initiative of the PCI-SIG.
“AI applications are reshaping data center networks, with hyperscalers deploying increasingly larger clusters of disaggregated servers distributed over longer distances,” said Tony Chan Carusone, CTO of Alphawave Semi. “This shift has sparked greater interest in optical PCIe among several of our customers. Through our collaboration with Nubis, we are pleased to demonstrate how we are leveraging Alphawave Semi’s leadership in IP connectivity and silicon to enable PCIe optical connectivity solutions that accelerate high-performance AI computing and data infrastructure.”