Lightmatter, the leader in photonic (super)computing, announced a technical collaboration with Cadence to develop co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions that integrate Cadence’s silicon-proven, high-speed SerDes IP with Lightmatter’s Passage optical engine. By focusing on integration with advanced-node CMOS technology and industry-standard packaging workflows, the collaboration aims to pave the way for high-performance, manufacturing-ready CPO in next-generation AI and high-performance computing (HPC) environments.
The transition to CPO represents a major inflection point for AI infrastructure, moving beyond traditional pluggables and near-packaged optics to fully integrated, 2D and 3D-stacked photonic interconnects. The combination of Cadence’s optics-optimized high-speed SerDes, Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express™ (UCIe™) IP for disaggregation, and EDA expertise with Lightmatter’s silicon photonics and laser leadership establishes a roadmap of silicon-proven technologies for the development of hyperscalers’ custom AI infrastructure chips.
“The next big leap in AI performance requires a fundamental change in how we move data,” said Ritesh Jain, SVP of Engineering & Operations at Lightmatter. “Cadence’s connectivity IP is an ideal complement to our Passage platform. Together, we are paving the way for CPO deployment by solving the most complex optics-electronics integration challenges, ensuring that the next generation of AI clusters can achieve the energy efficiency and bandwidth density required for the next wave of frontier models.”
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“As AI capacity continues to expand dramatically to accommodate unprecedented demand and workloads, scale-up and scale-out are transforming AI infrastructure,” said Boyd Phelps, SVP and GM of the Silicon Solutions Group at Cadence. “Cadence is dedicated to providing next-generation optical interconnect solutions to optimize data center performance and efficiency, and our collaboration with Lightmatter demonstrates our commitment to the evolution of advanced interconnects. By integrating our high-speed SerDes and UCIe IP into this new CPO platform, we’re helping our customers build more scalable, power-efficient AI systems.”
“While the industry has long debated the timing of CPO, the move toward integrated 3D-stacked photonic designs is now inevitable,” said Roy Chua, founder and principal at AvidThink. “This collaboration between Cadence and Lightmatter is crucial because it addresses the architectural foundation of electrical-optical connectivity integration. By optimizing advanced CMOS IP with a future-ready CPO design, they are giving the ecosystem the tools needed to escape the limitations of shoreline-bound interconnects.”
SOURCE: Lightmatter
