In 1960, a team at the University of Illinois released the first version of their PLATO “computerized instruction system,” a network of what would eventually be thousands of computer terminals connected to large mainframe computers.
A future NASA telescope could spot atmospheric phenomena on planets orbiting other stars
What it is, why it's important, and how it's being used.
Petal, the next step in Meta’s subsea innovation, will be the first subsea cable to deliver petabit capacity at transoceanic distances, connecting France and the United States over approximately 7,…
Today, no one can imagine life without the vast number of laser applications, ranging from milliwatt-class lasers to high-power processing.
Researchers have created a tiny chip that produces a stable “rainbow” of light capable of generating multiple high-frequency signals at once, potentially boosting the speed and capacity of future 6G networks. Its extreme precision could also make it valuable for quantum timing…
Eyeglass lenses have been cast, shipped, and ground the same way for decades. Azul 3D is betting that UV-curable photopolymers and 3D printing offer something better
When NPO? Who NPO? Where NPO? Why NPO? Winners, losers, and more.
Optical fibers are already the backbone of global communication systems. Recently, however, physicists have started to explore how their functionality could be boosted further by conveying information ...
Degenerate stupid idea.
Yunnan Germanium issued a preliminary earnings announcement for the first half of 2026, projecting net profit attributable to shareholders of 55 million to 80 million yuan, a year-on-year surge of 148.31% to 261.18%. Excluding non-recurring items, net profit is expected to reach…
Dense wavelength-division multiplexing copackaged optics technology offers architectural advantages in cost, power, and performance that will compound as AI infrastructure scales...
Earlier this spring, AMD, Broadcom, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI formed the Optical ...
The decision to use slow-and-wide is an energy-per-bit argument.
Photonic integration has evolved through three manufacturing eras
Optical manufacturing bottlenecks, air conditioning as development infrastructure, and the anisotropy lesson every process quietly reteaches
Key physics constraints and architecture challenges for scaling data rates in DWDM - ring modulator physics, clocking, CW-DFB Laser, and package integration
Silicon photonics is one of the hottest and fastest moving markets to address high speed data demands in co-packaged optics (CPO) in AI data centers. In this post I cover a few important high-level details to better understand silicon photonic circuits. These include: Link…
A Coming Supply Chain Disruption for Global AI Infrastructure
These III-V semiconductors are essential for super-high bandwidth optical interconnects.
So if you’re building or investing in photonic manufacturing, ask yourself: is this facility organised around a material or around a process? And if it’s a process, is there a design ecosystem that creates lock-in? Material without integration = component supplier. Integration…
Before GPS, how did aircraft navigate? One important technique was celestial navigation: navigating from the positions of the stars, planets...
It would take hours to set up the perfect shot at the Texas Petawatt Laser facility. Once it fired, the beam released an incredible amount of energy.
Then it compresses the pulse back to a trillionth of a second to create a star in a vacuum chamber
Scaling high-speed data movement from IM-DD to CPO/Silicon Photonics/Coherent
A new laser system aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft is sending sharper video and more data back to Earth
microwave
NASA’s Near Space Network and Deep Space Network of giant radio antennas
The startup's programmable chip uses a metasurface architecture to control light without moving parts.
Himax Technologies has long been seen as a peripheral player in the AI boom. But that perception may be about to change. Buried inside a series of recent TSMC patent filings lies an unexpected...
Interconnect efficiency is now essential and photonics can help
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History was unmade last year, as engineers began the massive project of ripping the first-ever transoceanic fiber-optic cable from the ocean floor. Just don’t mention sharks.
Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) has long promised to transform datacenter connectivity, but it has taken a long time for the technology to come to market, with tangible deployment-ready products only arriving in 2025.
copper-based scale-up solutions, such as NVLink, provide tremendous bandwidth of 7.2 Tbit/s per GPU – soon to be 14.4 Tbit/s per GPU in the Rubin generation, yet copper-based links are limited in range to two meters
Rubin
Fully integrated dToF modules and iToF VCSEL illuminators for short range applications. Laser sources for long range LIDAR systems.
A cable design that sends light through air, rather than solid glass, could cut signal loss and make long-distance transmissions cheaper.
Traditional von Neumann architectures suffer from fundamental bottlenecks due to continuous data movement between memory and processing units, a challenge that worsens with technology scaling as electrical interconnect delays become more significant. These limitations impede the…
This Guide is a birds-eye-view of all the optical systems and lens design forms out there, and will be an essential tool for any lens designer's toolbox.
Nvidia's endorsement of co-packaged optics means the time is right
Lumai's breakthrough in AI acceleration with free-space optics promises energy cuts and faster processing.
Musings on systems, information, learning, and optimization.
According to rumors, Nvidia is not expected to deliver optical interconnects for its GPU memory-lashing NVLink protocol until the “Rubin Ultra” GPU
A new technical paper titled “Integrated non-reciprocal magneto-optics with ultra-high endurance for photonic in-memory computing” was published by researchers at UC Santa Barbara, University of Cagliari, University of Pittsburgh, AIST and Tokyo Institute of Technology. Abstract…
A new technical paper titled “Image Sensors and Photodetectors Based on Low-Carbon Footprint Solution-Processed Semiconductors” was published by researchers at Cardiff University. Abstract “This mini-review explores the evolution of image sensors, essential electronic components…
Intel has achieved a breakthrough in silicon photonics,unveiling world's first fully integrated optical compute interconnect for AI markets.
We explain how lasers work and all the fascinating ways they're being used.
Some of the leaders of the networking industry showed up to the Optical Fiber Conference, including Broadcom, MediaTek, Semtech, and MaxLinear.
From curvilinear designs to thermal vulnerabilities, what engineers need to know about the advantages and disadvantages of photonics.
Leveraging novel photonic circuit designs, researchers hope to lower electricity consumption in data centers.
Stanford team achieves first-ever optical backpropagation milestone
Vaysh Kewada, CEO and Co-Founder of Salience Labs, advances AI by circumventing finite processing power with a revolutionary new chip design.
You can make many things with silicon photonics, but a laser is not one of them
“Metalenses” created with photolithography could change the nature of imaging and optical processing.
Easy to use cloud based optical exploration, simulation and design
Attached: 2 images One of my nice friends at Hurricane Electric gave me a dead 100G-LR4 optic to tear apart for your entertainment, so for the sake of your entertainment, lets dig into it! 🧵