The CW-WDM MSA (Continuous-Wave Wavelength Division Multiplexing Multi-Source Agreement) Group has announced its existence. The group will work to define optical laser sources for applications requiring more than the four wavelengths currently specified in most IEEE and MSA specifications.
The group cites emerging applications such as co-packaged optics, optical computing, and artificial intelligence that will require interfaces with 8, 16, and perhaps 32 wavelengths. The group stresses that it will focus on O-Band laser specifications for such applications, rather than addressing the entire communications link. The group hopes to produce a specification in the second half of 2020.
Promoter Members of the CW-WDM MSA include Arista Networks, Ayar Labs, CST Global, imec, Intel, Lumentum, Luminous Computing, MACOM, Quintessent, Sumitomo Electric, and II-VI. Observer Members, who will be briefed on the development of the standard, include AMF, Axalume, Broadcom, Coherent Solutions, Furukawa Electric, GlobalFoundries, Keysight Technologies, NeoPhotonics, NVIDIA, Samtec, Scintil Photonics, and Tektronix.
“Laser sources have been the critical building block of fiber-optic communications, and standardizing their specifications has been key to the success of telecom and datacom optics,” said Chris Cole, vice president, systems engineering at Luminous Computing and chair of the CW-WDM MSA. “ITU-T established complete baselines for DWDM and CWDM grids. The IEEE then specified subsets of these grids for high-volume data center applications, starting with 40G and 100G Ethernet optics. The CW-WDM MSA will similarly leverage ITU-T and IEEE standards to specify 8, 16, and 32 wavelength grids in O-Band for emerging advanced datacom and computing optics. With the definition of multiple grid sets, the MSA will enable developers to choose what is optimum for their application, while allowing laser suppliers to only have to invest in one technology platform.”
“We support and encourage consortiums like the CW-WDM MSA Group in order to accelerate important technical innovations,” said Christopher Berner, head of compute at OpenAI, an AI research and deployment company based in San Francisco. “OpenAI must be on the cutting edge of AI capabilities and low-latency, high-bandwidth optical interconnect is a central piece of our compute strategy to achieve our mission of delivering artificial intelligence technology that benefits all of humanity.”
Additional information can be found on the CW-WDM MSA Group website.
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