Intel announced a prototype of its Optical Compute Interconnect (OCI) chiplet at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 2024. The chipset is designed to improve AI computing by addressing the demand for higher bandwidth and low power consumption.

The OCI chiplet supports 64 channels of 32 GB/ps data transmission over around 100 meters of fiber optics. It also strengthens new compute architectures like coherent memory expansion and can be incorporated with Intel CPUs and GPUs for future scalability. It also includes a silicon photonics integrated circuit with on-chip lasers and optical amplifiers, and it offers 4 TB/ps bidirectional data transfer compatible with PCIe Gen5 technology.

The prototype claims to be the industry’s first fully integrated bidirectional optical I/O chiplet while consuming five pico-Joules per bit—roughly a third of the power draw of other chiplet designs.

Analyst QuickTake : This follows Intel’s announcement of Gaudi 3 in April 2024 , an AI chip designed to enhance the training and deployment of complex AI models, like those used by OpenAI's ChatGPT. Intel is also set to directly benefit from the signing of the CHIPS Act in March 2024 , offering up to USD 8.5 billion in direct funding for the company’s semiconductor projects.