Abstract:
Faced with the severe challenges posed by global artificial intelligence large-scale models and high-performance computing to data transmission bandwidth and energy efficiency, semiconductor wafer foundry giant GlobalFoundries and Marvell Technology, a leader in optical interconnect and chip solutions, announced an in-depth strategic cooperation. The two parties will comprehensively expand collaboration in the field of silicon photonics (Silicon Photonics) manufacturing and packaging technology, aiming to accelerate the commercial deployment of next-generation high-density, low-latency and low-power silicon photonics optical interconnect platforms in AI data centers and ultra-large-scale cloud infrastructure.
As the scale of AI training clusters expands to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of cards, the traditional electrical interconnection method based on copper wires is facing insurmountable physical limitations such as short transmission distance, severe signal attenuation, and high power consumption. Silicon photonics technology uses photons instead of electrons for high-bandwidth data transmission, and is recognized by the semiconductor industry as a key technology path to breaking the "computing power transmission wall" in data centers. By directly integrating optical devices and electronic integrated circuits on the same silicon wafer or cross-chip packaging architecture, silicon photonics technology can significantly improve photoelectric conversion efficiency, significantly increase data throughput, and reduce data transmission energy consumption by several orders of magnitude.
Under this expanded cooperation framework, GF will leverage its industry-leading silicon photonics manufacturing platforms (such as the Fotonix platform) to provide Marvell Electronics with comprehensive process support from wafer manufacturing, electro-optical component integration to high-precision packaging. Marvell Electronics will use GF's manufacturing platform to vigorously promote the research, development and mass production of its next-generation pluggable optical transceiver modules and co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions. This powerful alliance not only optimizes the overall structure and thermal management solution of optoelectronic co-packaging, but also greatly improves the mass production yield and cost advantages of precision silicon photonic chips.
The relevant person in charge of Marvell Electronics pointed out that the explosive growth of AI infrastructure has brought an unprecedented window period for data centers’ demand for ultra-high bandwidth interconnection. By jointly building a complete silicon photonics supply chain with large-scale mass production capabilities with GF, both parties can better support cloud service providers and AI giants in building highly scalable and energy-efficient computing clusters. GlobalFoundries also stated that the technical synergy between the two parties will promote silicon photonics from specific high-performance computing scenarios to a broader data center infrastructure.
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