MediaTek has reportedly made its foray into the booming field of Heterogeneous Integration Co-Packaged Optics (CPO), announcing on March 20th a partnership with optical communications firm Ranovus to launch a customized Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) design platform for CPO. This platform is reported to provide advantages such as low cost, high bandwidth density, and low power consumption, expanding MediaTek’s presence in the thriving markets of AI, Machine Learning (ML), and High-Performance Computing (HPC).

According to its press release, on the eve of the 2024 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC 2024), MediaTek announced the launch of a new-generation customized chip design platform, offering heterogeneous integration solutions for high-speed electronic and optical signal transmission interfaces (I/O).

MediaTek stated that it will be demonstrating a serviceable socketed implementation that combines 8x800G electrical links and 8x800G optical links for a more flexible deployment. It integrates both MediaTek’s in-house SerDes for electrical I/O as well as co-packaged Odin® optical engines from Ranovus for optical I/O.

As per the same release, leveraging the heterogeneous solution that includes both 112G LR SerDes and optical modules, this CPO demonstration is said to be delivering reduced board space and device costs, boosts bandwidth density, and lowers system power by up to 50% compared to existing solutions.

MediaTek emphasizes that its ASIC design platform covers all aspects from design to production, offering a comprehensive solution with the latest industry technologies such as MLink, UCIe’s Die-to-Die Interface, InFO, CoWoS, Hybrid CoWoS advanced packaging technologies, PCIe high-speed transmission interfaces, and integrated thermals and mechanical design.

“The emergence of Generative AI has resulted in significant demand not only for higher memory bandwidth and capacity, but also for higher I/O density and speeds, integration of electrical and optical I/O is the latest technology that allows MediaTek to deliver the most flexible leading edge data center ASIC solutions.” said Jerry Yu, Senior Vice President at MediaTek.

As per Economy Daily News citing Industry sources, they have predicted that as the next-generation of optical communication transitions to 800G transmission speeds, the physical limitations of materials will necessitate the use of optical signals instead of electronic signals to achieve high-speed data transmission. This, reportedly, will lead to a rising demand for CPOs with optical-to-electrical conversion capabilities, becoming one of the new focal points for semiconductor manufacturers to target.

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(Photo credit: MediaTek)