Next-gen AI networks may hinge on the telephone switchboard's return

If you thought 72 GPUs per rack was dense, next-generation designs from Nvidia and others will cram hundreds or even thousands of accelerators into a single massive system. But for any of that to happen, they're going to need a lot of optics and technology that's reminiscent of the old-fashioned telephone switchboard.

This reality has fueled a flurry of investment in everything from photonics startups to established optical equipment and fiber manufacturing. In March, Nvidia invested $6 billion ($2 billion apiece) in Coherent, Lumentum, and Marvell to advance their optics tech.

Some of these investments went to support optical circuit switching (OCS) technology. On Wednesday, Nvidia joined Maverick Silicon and Light Street Capital to spend another $125 million to support the development of iPronics' second-generation OCS tech.

Why switch packets when you can switch light?

Optical circuit switches are switches only in the literal sense. Unlike a Broadcom Tomahawk...

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