Open Collaboration for Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) in AI Systems

AI systems are constrained by current interconnects, facing bandwidth and power bottlenecks. Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) addresses this by integrating energy-efficient photonics directly with compute/switching silicon, enabling next-gen AI clusters. This session details Lightmatter’s CPO approach, including 2D, 2.5D, and 3D photonic integration and the Passage platform, matching them to AI system goals. Widespread CPO adoption is slowed by issues like fragmented supply chains, manufacturing complexity, and a lack of open, interoperable standards.

A proposal for an open, collaborative model is presented to accelerate High Volume Manufacturing (HVM) readiness. Coordinated specifications across chiplets, optical engines, and cluster architectures are crucial. The discussion covers integration considerations (e.g., laser architectures, manageability) and alignment with standards bodies (OIF, IEEE, OCP, UALink, UCIe). The future of AI infrastructure relies on high-performance photonic interconnects, and ecosystem partners are invited to help define open CPO platforms to accelerate scalable and sustainable AI systems.