MicroLEDs for interconnects are becoming increasingly interesting as a technology for AI datacenters.
I went to Avicena's office and spent 3 hours talking to their entire team, from the CEO to senior leadership to engineering working on the tech.
I asked in-depth questions and I took lots of pictures. The latest report combines all my observations in a single post.
Important ideas to take away:
- MicroLEDs are more of a copper replacement for scale up/in. Don't compare to laser optics. They are not the competition.
- Slow lane rates simplify a lot of things; faster isnt always better.
- Crosstalk isn't as big an issue as everyone makes it out to be.
- Fiber bundle does not make the cable fatter. It's a pretty normal sized cable.
- Gearboxing is a requirement for "wide-but-slow" ; more lanes require deskew, slow lanes simplify circuits.
- It is a killer technology for scale-in; the rumblings of which we are just beginning to see.
What I still don't buy: that microLEDs have 30m reach. I have not seen a demo yet. This messaging from companies working on microLEDs draws comparison to optics -- which is missing the point.
There is room for a good interconnect in the sub-10m range.
The post below addresses lots of the nuance that is missing from the dialog on microLEDs for interconnects.
Read it here: