Marvell pushes GlobalFoundries to light up wafer production
It might be the next trillion-dollar company, but it'll need some help on the supply side to do it
Marvell has strengthened its ties with GlobalFoundries, a renowned wafer fab, to boost silicon germanium (SiGe) wafer production. This partnership aims to expand the production of silicon germanium, essential for optical transceivers and laser modules used in high-performance switches. Nvidia, Marvell's ally in this venture, already utilizes co-packaged optics in certain switches to enhance power efficiency and reliability.
Experts anticipate that the next-generation pluggable optics (NPO) will be utilized in extensive multirack systems, such as Huawei's Ascend 960DT-based SuperPods. The SiGe technology employed by GlobalFoundries has already been validated for speeds up to 200 Gbps per lane, potentially paving the way for 3.2 Tbps transceivers. The demand for optics technology has surged, particularly driven by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
Marvell CEO Matt Murphy highlighted the increasing need for optics to connect racks beyond a few meters, as copper interconnects reach their physical limits beyond 400 Gbps per lane. Consequently, the industry has been investing heavily in bolstering optics and photonics supply chains, with Nvidia contributing billions to optical technology companies, including $2 billion each to Lumentum and Coherent.
Written by urgent.news from The Register's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
Also reported by 1 other outlet
- Marvell pushes GlobalFoundries to light up wafer production theregister.com
