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The AI market is red hot in 2023. For the technology to remain in high demand for the years ahead it will need to deliver more efficient and affordable solutions. Photonics-enabled hardware is essential for that progress.
It’s easy to argue that the reason why interest has exploded in AI this year is because of ChatGPT. The application is a “chatbot” that has deep learning abilities and can generate summaries for search queries that are presented in easy-to-read paragraph form, instead of returning pages of websites as a search engine would. It can also read spreadsheets and reply to questions related to those uploads, or analyze images, and much more. For many professions, its impact is already being felt.
Programs such as ChatGPT and Google’s Bard rely on fiber-optic communication. Fiber-optic cables deliver data between servers that are located far apart from each other. These cables transmit light signals in the form of photons. The light signals are then converted into electrical signals that can be processed by AI algorithms powering software applications. Fiber-optic communication offers several advantages over traditional copper wire connections, including faster data transmission speeds and better resistance to interference from electromagnetic radiation. This feature is particularly important for AI programs, which require massive amounts of data to be transmitted and processed quickly. Using light for data transmission through the cables is faster and consumes less power than other materials and, importantly, light generates less heat — by a factor of 10 times — than electrons that go through copper.
“It has been estimated that more than 50% of the power of modern computing systems is wasted simply in this moving around of data,” Science Daily notes.
Innovative hardware can solve this problem. Photonics lasers support the growth of AI applications because the light pulses that transmit data are encoded with information, which is then decoded at the receiving end using photo detectors. This feature allows for high-speed transmission over long distances, making it ideal for applications like AI and large-scale data center architecture. In addition to fiber-optic communication and lasers, photonics is also used in the development of specialized chips — including accelerator chips — and sensors that power AI programs. These components process and analyze data from various sources, including images, videos, and speech, which then helps the AI applications become smarter and more predictive.
The global photonics market is expected to rise from $722 billion to $1.2 trillion by 2028. The chip market alone is projected by Allied Market research to surpass $263 billion by 2031.
Among the companies poised to be a significant player in that growth is POET Technologies. Our company has architected light source and light engine solutions that dramatically lower the cost for AI developers and is currently supplying the market with our initial products in this sector. The POET LightBar™ received praise when it was demonstrated at the OFC Conference in March. It is an optical engine with high-power CW lasers passively attached to the POET Optical Interposer™. The LightBar can be integrated on a host board and connected to chips and ASICs with built-in silicon photonics. On April 25, POET Starlight™, a complete packaged light source, was announced. It incorporates passive optical components and is connectorized on the electrical and optical ends. AI developers can use POET Starlight directly on their boards without requiring any additional optical alignments.
By using best-of-breed or known-good components, including directly modulated lasers (DMLs) from suppliers like Lumentum, POET has shown results that demonstrate excellent SMSR and power uniformity, which are essential to creating efficiency. Notably, our company’s technology supports the standards recently adopted by the industry in the Continuous-Wave Wavelength Division Multiplexing Multi-Source Agreement (CW-WDM MSA).
In a recent research report, an analyst singled out the value of POET’s relationship with its lead AI customer, Celestial AI. “Each accelerator Celestial AI sells has four POET chips. At $200 per chip, Celestial could represent $800 million in potential revenues by itself. We believe most if not everything Celestial is planning to sell contains POET,” the report states.
Overall, photonics’ ability to transmit data quickly and accurately over long distances, as well as process and analyze data from various sources, makes it indispensable for the development of advanced AI systems. Being at the leading edge of this rapidly evolving industry is tremendously exciting for our team and our customers. As one of the few AI hardware companies in the world, we believe we are in the right place at the right time with the right solution for this sector.
