NTT Corporation (NTT) and Fujitsu Ltd. have announced a strategic business alliance that will see them collaborate on the development of technologies that will lead to what they call the “Realization of a Sustainable Digital Society.” Among these areas of joint research and development are photonics-electronics convergence manufacturing technology and promotion of open communication technologies. The companies also will seek to advance disaggregated high-performance computing. The agreement will see NTT buy a stake in at least one Fujitsu company.
The companies believe that a “New Normal” is arriving that will see increased decentralization and a need for more robust communications and computing capabilities. The two companies will collaborate to develop technologies necessary for this future, in keeping with NTT’s Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) initiative (see “NTT, Intel, Sony found Innovative Optical and Wireless Network Global Forum”).
The research includes development of compact, power-saving optical communication co-packages that integrate digital coherent optical communications LSIs and coherent optical subassemblies based on silicon photonics by the end of fiscal 2022. NTT and Fujitsu also will seek to develop a new architecture for applying ultra-high-speed, compact, and low-cost photonics-electronics convergence devices in mobile communication and ICT products, starting with Fujitsu’s 5G base stations. NTT says other photonics-electronics convergence technologies, including semiconductors for computing, may also be developed in the future for energy-efficient ICT applications.
To provide momentum, NTT Electronics Corp. (NEL), which develops products based on NTT R&D, will purchase a 66.6% stake in Fujitsu Advanced Technologies Ltd. (FATEC), principally for its semiconductor mounting technology. FATEC will become NTT Electronics Cross Technologies Corp. and begin operations on June 1, 2021.
Meanwhile, NTT and Fujitsu also will work together on the development of open communication technologies for optical transport and mobile applications. This effort will seek to promote the use of white-box hardware and general-purpose software. For optical communications, this means new optical devices based on an open architecture. The companies will focus on building system products developed by Fujitsu and the control of supply chain management. NTT and Fujitsu expect the first market in which this effort will make an impact will be data center interconnect, where they believe there is strong demand and the adoption of open architectures is accelerating.
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