10 Mar 2027
10:15 - 11:45
Expo Theater I
As AI workloads push data center interconnects beyond 800G toward 1.6T and 3.2T per lane, traditional pluggable optics are reaching their limits in power consumption, signal integrity, and port density. Multiple packaging paradigms, e.g., CPO, NPO, and emerging XPO, promise dramatic improvements but come with differing trade-offs in integration complexity, serviceability, supply chain maturity, and economics. This panel brings together leaders from AI computing, hyperscalers, switch ASIC vendors, optical engine suppliers, and standards bodies, to discuss: What is the best choice for scaling AI clusters over the next 5–10 years? Should the industry bet on mature pluggables with incremental improvements, transition through NPO as a pragmatic middle ground, leap to tightly integrated CPO, or explore radical XPO architectures ? Will one architecture dominate, or will different solutions coexist across the data center hierarchy?
Moderator
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Di Liang
University of Michigan, United States