Marvell Blogs

Posts Tagged 'Optical Module'

• June 24, 2026

  

  

  

  Structera X and A CXL Compression: Making Every Gigabyte Count

  By Arifur Rahman, Director of Product Marketing, Custom Cloud Solutions, Marvell

  

  Modern AI workloads are insatiable consumers of memory. Deep learning recommendation models (DLRM), large language model (LLM) inference, in-memory databases and vector search engines all share a common bottleneck: there is never enough DRAM, and what exists is very expensive.

  At today's spot prices—$27–$37 per GB for server-grade DDR5 RDIMMs1—a 12TB memory pool requires nearly half a million dollars in DRAM alone. Meanwhile, AI infrastructure buildouts are consuming server DRAM capacity faster than fabs can produce it, driving prices up 300–400% since mid-2025.^{1, 2}

  CXL memory expansion was supposed to solve this. And it does—but there's a subtler lever that most solutions ignore: the data sitting in that memory is compressible, and most CXL controllers don't touch it.

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• June 17, 2026

  

  

  

  Plasmonics: A Path to Higher Bandwidth in Optics in the AI Era

  By Claudia Hoessbacher, Senior Director, and Wolfgang Heni, Director, Optical Engineering, Marvell

  Plasmons have been used to accelerate drug discovery, enhance the sensitivity of sensors and even create artistic treasures in the Roman era.

  Ongoing research at Marvell seeks to harness them to improve the performance of optical networks for the AI era. Plasmonics, a technology that leverages the properties of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), provides a promising pathway for enhancing the roadmap of silicon photonic (SiPho) light engines, a critical component inside optical modules.

  Plasmonic-based SiPho light engines could support modules operating at 3.2T and beyond while consuming a fraction of the space and power per bit of modules based on existing technologies. Manufacturers could leverage foundry process technologies for scaling production.

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• May 28, 2026

  

  

  

  Open CPX Sets the Stage for More Flexible, Scalable Connectivity

  By George Hervey, Associate Vice President, Cloud Switch Marketing, Marvell

  Co-packaged connectivity is coming. The Open CPX MSA (Co-packaging Multisource Agreement) is working to simplify adoption.

  The consortium, which includes Marvell and other leaders in connectivity, is developing specifications and standards for solutions for integrating near-packaged optical (NPO) and/or co-packaged optical (CPO) technology into switches and servers in scalable, repeatable ways. Members are also working to support interoperability with co-packaged copper (CPC).

  The idea is to give data center service providers, equipment manufacturers and others a unified framework for next-generation connectivity to accelerate innovation and meet the surging demand for these technologies. Fewer than one million near- and co-packaged ports shipped in 2025, according to LightCounting; by 2030, shipments are projected to surpass 100 million ports per year.¹ Standards that can ensure predictability and flexibility will be critical in enabling this expected growth.

  “The initial target of the MSA will be to develop an optimized optical engine with a defined pluggable socket and electrical connector system supporting high speed and high-density connectivity between a switch or processor and co-packaged and near-package interconnects,” the Open CPX MSA website states. “The specifications will define connector mechanicals, thermals, electrical pinout, mechanical form factors, electrical, optical, and management interface specifications to ensure interoperability between multiple vendors of Open CPX.”

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• March 25, 2024

  

  

  

  O-Band Coherent: An Idea Whose Time Is (Nearly) Here

  By Xi Wang, VP of Product Marketing of Optical Connectivity, Marvell

  Over the last 20 years, data rates for optical technology have climbed 1000x while power per bit has declined by 100x, a stunning trajectory that in many ways paved the way for the cloud, mobile Internet and streaming media.

  AI represents the next inflection point in bandwidth demand. Servers powered by AI accelerators and GPUs have far greater bandwidth needs than typical cloud servers: seven high-end GPUs alone can max out a switch that ordinarily can handle 500 cloud two-processor servers.  Just as important, demand for AI services, and higher-value AI services such as medical imaging or predictive maintenance, will further drive the need for more bandwidth. The AI market alone is expected to reach $407 billion by 2027. 

  O-band coherent or coherent lite—a technology that has been discussed for years at conferences but has yet to be deployed commercially in a meaningful way--will likely begin to percolate into the market over the next few years to help cloud service providers accommodate some of these challenges.

  

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• March 19, 2024

  

  

  

  How Optical Technology Will Save the Cloud

  By Radha Nagarajan, SVP and CTO of Optical Platforms, Marvell

  This article was first published by Photonics Spectra
  
  The cloud. It evokes an ethereal, weightless environment where problems get whisked away by a breeze.

  In reality, the cloud consists of massive industrial buildings containing millions of dollars’ worth of equipment spread over thousands, and increasingly millions, of square feet. In Arizona, some communities are complaining that cloud data centers are draining their aquifers and consuming far more water than expected¹ while in the UK and Ireland the power requirements of data centers are crimping needed housing development. Even in regions like Northern Virginia where the local economies are tightly bound to data centers, conflicts between residents and the cloud are emerging.

  With the rise of AI, these conflicts will escalate. AI models and data sets are growing exponentially in size² and developers are contemplating clusters with 32,000 GPUs, 2,000 switches, 4,000 servers and 74,000 optical modules³. Such a system might require 45MW of power capacity, or nearly 5x the peak load of the Empire State Building. This resource-intensiveness also shows how AI services could become an economic high wire act for many.

  

  Performance up, Power Down: Over 20 years, the data rate of optical modules has increased by 1000x while power per bit has decreased by 100x.
  
  

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Recent Posts

• Innovating Sustainably: Recognized Among the World’s Most Sustainable Companies in 2026
• Structera X and A CXL Compression: Making Every Gigabyte Count
• Plasmonics: A Path to Higher Bandwidth in Optics in the AI Era
• Open CPX Sets the Stage for More Flexible, Scalable Connectivity
• 224G Long-Range SerDes for Scale-up and Scale-inside