India, Feb. 10 -- As optical transceivers continue to advance in bandwidth, power efficiency, and integration level, their influence is extending beyond the data-centre network and into the way AI systems themselves are architected. Increasingly, the transition toward optical interconnects is not driven by raw bandwidth demand alone, but by the growing tension between electrical SerDes scaling, system power budgets, and physical architecture constraints.

To understand how this shift is unfolding, it is useful to first distinguish between scale-up fabrics, connectivity in AI systems.

Scale-up vs. Scale-out, and Serdes challenges

Scale-up refers to maximising performance within a tightly coupled system, such as a single server or acceler...