Is Optics Really the Next Memory?
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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High Bandwidth Memory
9 min read
The article draws a direct analogy between the optics boom and the 'memory supercycle' driven by HBM demand. Understanding HBM's technical architecture and why it commands premium margins helps readers grasp the comparison being made about optics potentially following a similar trajectory.
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Optical fiber connector
11 min read
The article mentions that the complete optical ecosystem includes 'fiber, connectors, transceivers' and discusses the shift from copper to optical interconnects. Understanding the technical specifications and standards of optical connectors provides context for the infrastructure buildout the article describes.
I feel like this past month has been about everybody plotting Nvidia’s downfall. From Michael Burry’s short position in Nvidia and his comparison to Cisco’s rise and fall in the dotcom era — to Google’s TPUv7 announcement that is giving Nvidia the jitters. This SemiAnalysis cartoon sums up the latter nicely!
There has been plenty of online discussion about these aspects and I see no point in repeating what everyone else is saying. To be frank, I don’t have much of a take on all this at the moment and I am happy to just stand by and watch the drama unfold.
In this short post, I want briefly expand on the thoughts behind my recent viral social media post about optics, and do deeper dives on related topics in the future.
But first…
ICYMI
Here is a quick summary of published content on this newsletter in the past month in case you’ve missed it. Quite a lot of you have purchased a paid subscription recently. Thank you for your support - it helps me keep working hard on these posts.
An In-Depth Look at the Viability of X-rays as an Alternative to EUV Lithography: Substrate - a California startup wants to take down both TSMC and ASML using X-rays to pattern leading edge nodes below 2nm. But how viable is their technology? (along with video essay, summary and downloadable article)
Why Co-Packaged Optics Uses External Lasers Instead of Integrated Sources: On-chip lasers for CPO are the holy grail, but a near-term pragmatic approach is to keep lasers external for thermals and reliability. A look at the physics, implementation, and solutions. (along with video essay, summary and downloadable article)
The Four Horsemen of the AI Infrastructure Buildout: What can go wrong and how likely is it to happen? (fully free)
A Complete Guide to Optical Transceiver Nomenclature: Decoding the alphabet soup of form factors, reach classifications, modulation schemes, and everything in between. (along with video essay, summary tables of information, additional reading, and downloadable article).
I’m starting to get some YouTube content off the ground; join me in my adventure.
An off-the-dome tweet I wrote last week garnered much more attention than I expected, accumulating over half a million impressions.
Interestingly, a lot of the comments seemed to indicate that I’m stating the obvious. My tweet was solely based
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