Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Video: Scaling Data Centers Optics to 800G, 1.6T, and Beyond

What does it take to scale up a data center to accommodate large AI clusters powered by 32,000 GPUs? Loi Nguyen, EVP and GM, Optical from Marvell explains:

  • The importance of connectivity in scaling up data centers: Not only do you need the GPUs themselves, but you also need high-speed optics and low latency switches to connect these GPUs together. A 32k GPU cluster would require around 70,000 optics connected via approximately 2,000 switches.
  • The power consumption of a large-scale data center: A 32k GPU cluster would consume about 45 megawatts of power, which is significantly more than the typical data center's 32 megawatts. This presents a major scaling challenge.
  • The role of Marvell in scaling bandwidth: The optic industry has done a good job in scaling optics, with optic bandwidth increasing by about 400% in the past 10 years. 
  • 800G optics are here. Next up, 1.6 Tbps.  And beyond?

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