With cloud growth surging, the impact of Generative AI, and the future of quantum computing growing closer to reality, hyperscale data centers are under pressure to support real time computing at a scale many could never have imagined.
The cloud computing market value reached USD 545.8 billion in 2022, but experts predict the market will grow at a CAGR of 17.9 percent, with estimates putting the market value at USD 1,240.9 billion by the end of 2027.
The rapid growth in cloud computing is breaking all records, and outpacing even the most optimistic growth forecasts, as more cloud devices and applications require higher-speed computational power.
The rising cost of energy has magnified the problem as cloud computing giants including AWS, Microsoft, Google, IBM, Alibaba, and other major players around the world.
Furthermore, hyperscale data centers are harming the environment and facing increasing regulatory pressure to reduce carbon emissions and the consumption of electricity. For both financial and sustainability reasons, cloud computing enterprises have increasingly begun to look for ways to be more energy efficient, and among the most promising new technologies os silicon photonic (SiPh), all-optic processing chips.
SiPh all-optic chips can help enable, extend, and increase data transmissions, as well as facilitate all-optical computing. This method uses light waves produced by lasers or incoherent sources for data processing, data storage or data communication for computing, which offers advantages such as low power consumption, high computational speed, large information storage, and inherent parallelism that cannot be rivaled by its electronic counterpart.
NewPhotonics Inc, a fabless chip startup and developer of a silicon photonic alternative to Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology used in most of today’s integrated circuits, has been funded in part by Genesis Business Humanity Club, and continues to receive guidance and business development support from team.
Their first-in-market optical gearbox, supporting the demand for 224G and 448G per lane signaling rates required for AI-based applications, including the explosive Generative AI domain, and other data intensive compute.
Established in 2020, with funding from AWZ Ventures, the European Innovation Council, the Israeli Innovation Authority, NextLeap Ventures, Trirec VC, Vahoca and the founding team, NewPhotonics has created a breakthrough micro processing photonic chip with the potential to immediately solve the most acute challenge hyperscale data center operators and others face.
The growth in energy consumption and inability to scale to meet demand is well-documented, and with an All-Optic chip that works within existing infrastructure, replacement of power-hungry and costly electronic chips has arrived.
The company has been developing a range of chips which will dramatically reduce energy consumption, increase the speed of processing massive amounts of data, and lower operating costs for OEMs, data center operators, and cloud and network service providers.
“NewPhotonics products enable end-to-end optical connectivity, significantly reduce power consumption, and address the pressing need to address exponential data rate growth and high processing power demands for AI applications, all at a lower total cost of ownership,” said Founder and CEO Yaniv BenHaim, who is also an active Member of Genesis Club. “Our approach will make a substantial contribution to reversing climate change, while supporting advanced innovations including generative AI applications, and will unlock value to the global tech community for decades to come. We are just at the beginning of this revolution, and proud to be pioneers, with over 50 patents in process.”
New Photonics silicon technology represents an all-optic paradigm shift with fabless chips by using photons versus electrons. The benefits are significant:
- Speed of Light performance
- 80% cost reduction
- 50%-90% energy savings
- Designed to easily scale
- Future proof approach
- Uses existing infrastructure
- Matures existing foundries
New Photonics has the potential to save 400 thousand metric tons of CO2e by 2027 during the initial market entry period, by replacing just a fraction of the chips in the market, according to studies conducted by the company.
Scaling to 1.6 GBps is challenging, but New Photonics has met that challenge with technology that works with existing infrastructure, including 112G/224G PAM4 SERDES and 112G/224G optical Modulators and PDs, while reducing power consumption. Their products can run in existing mechanics (OSFP-XD/1600), and their ultra-high bandwidth PiC design is based on CPO Chip-to-Chip communications, with 3.2Tbps single light sources and proprietary signal modulation.
The global silicon photonics market reached USD 1.49 billion by the end of 2022, with experts estimating a CAGR of 23.23 percent, bringing the predicted market value to USD 3.44 billion by 2026. However, with the cloud also set to grow, these numbers may certainly increase, and cloud computing organizations continue to adopt and implement SiPh technology to reduce energy consumption, for both their own, and the environment’s benefit.
