Innovative optical communication technology developed by IBM has the potential to speed up AI training by up to five times and dramatically improve the power efficiency of data centers.
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🟦IBM Accelerates AI Training by 5X with New Optical Communication Technology
Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) announced by IBM is a technology that uses light for data communication between semiconductor chips. Traditionally, electrical wiring has been the norm in data centers, but this technology has made it possible to communicate with light. As a result, it is said that the training time for large language models (LLMs) can be reduced from 3 months to just 3 weeks. This technology significantly reduces power consumption during AI model training, and is said to lead to savings equivalent to the annual power consumption of 5,000 households in the United States.
🟦 Why is this technology important?
With the spread of AI, improving the communication speed and power efficiency of data centers has become an essential issue. Until now, optical communication technology has been mainly used for long-distance communications, but IBM has succeeded in applying it to short-distance communications such as rack-to-rack and chip-to-chip communications. The new technology enables optical fibers to be miniaturized and densified, increasing data transmission rates by up to 80 times. This not only dramatically increases the processing power of AI, but also enables sustainable data center operations.
🟦 Summary
IBM’s new CPO technology is a breakthrough that accelerates AI training by 5 times and significantly reduces power consumption. This technology will dramatically improve the efficiency of data centers and open up the possibility of adapting to future growth in AI workloads.
It is interesting to note that the introduction of fiber optic technology makes it possible to replace copper wiring over short distances between racks and chips. Although the amount of copper used will not be significantly reduced at this stage, I felt that the evolution of this technology has the potential to contribute to reducing copper use in the future, and that it shows a path to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
