BizLink & ams OSRAM: AI data center optical link technology

BizLink Germany

Overview

BizLink and ams OSRAM have announced a strategic partnership to co-develop next-generation optical interconnect solutions for AI scale-up domains. They plan to demonstrate their innovative low-power, low-latency “wide & slow” optical link technology at the ECOC 2026 conference. This approach distributes data across numerous parallel, slower channels instead of a few complex, high-speed ones, achieving extended reach and ultra-low latency while maintaining cost and power efficiency.

In Depth

Key Findings

BizLink and ams OSRAM have entered into a strategic partnership to collaboratively develop next-generation optical interconnect solutions specifically tailored for Artificial Intelligence (AI) scale-up domains. The companies are slated to demonstrate their groundbreaking “wide & slow” optical link technology, characterized by its innovative low-power and low-latency performance, at the upcoming ECOC 2026 conference. This novel approach fundamentally shifts from relying on a few complex, power-intensive high-speed channels to distributing data across a multitude of parallel, slower channels, thereby achieving extended reach and ultra-low latency while rigorously preserving cost and power efficiency.

Technical Details

The “wide & slow” optical link technology represents a paradigm shift in data transmission. Unlike traditional optical communication systems that concentrate data onto a few high-bandwidth channels (e.g., 100Gbps+ per channel), this new technology operates numerous channels in parallel, each at a lower individual speed (e.g., a few Gbps per channel). This yields several significant technical advantages:

• **Reduced Power Consumption**: The slower operating speed of each channel dramatically decreases power consumption, particularly in electro-optical conversion components like modulators and drivers.
• **Lower Latency**: Data is distributed across multiple paths, reducing queuing delays and improving overall data transmission latency.
• **Extended Reach**: Slower signals are less susceptible to physical constraints than high-speed signals, enabling more reliable data transmission over longer distances.
• **Cost Efficiency**: Eliminating the need for complex signal integrity techniques and expensive components required for high-speed channels helps control overall system costs.

BizLink contributes its expertise in connectors, cables, and interconnect assemblies, while ams OSRAM provides high-performance optical semiconductor technologies, including VCSELs (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers) and photodiodes. The combination of their technologies aims to create robust and efficient optical interconnect solutions specifically designed for the demanding requirements of AI data centers.

Background & Context

The rapid advancement of AI has imposed unprecedented challenges on data center interconnects. The enormous volume of data movement required between CPUs, GPUs, and memory for large-scale AI model training and inference is pushing traditional electrical wiring and high-speed optical modules to their limits concerning bandwidth, power consumption, cost, and thermal management. Particularly in large AI clusters, data transfer within and between racks has become a significant bottleneck, degrading overall system performance and energy efficiency.

The “wide & slow” approach is envisioned as a revolutionary solution to overcome these “power wall” and “I/O wall” limitations. Data center operators are actively seeking more power-efficient and scalable interconnect solutions, and the partnership between BizLink and ams OSRAM directly addresses this critical demand. Demonstrations at key events like ECOC (European Conference on Optical Communication) will be crucial for this technology to gain significant industry attention and adoption.

Strategic Significance & Outlook

The “wide & slow” optical link technology co-developed by BizLink and ams OSRAM holds the potential to profoundly transform AI data center interconnect architectures. Widespread adoption of this technology could substantially reduce data center power consumption and operational costs while simultaneously enhancing AI workload performance and scalability. This will facilitate the deployment of larger and more complex AI models, thereby further accelerating the proliferation of AI across various applications.

In the future, this technology’s applications may extend beyond data centers to other fields requiring low latency and high efficiency, such as High-Performance Computing (HPC), edge computing, and even in-vehicle networks. This partnership is expected to play a vital role in driving sustainable innovation within the optical communication sector and establishing the foundation for next-generation digital infrastructure globally, making it a critical development for engineers and investors alike.

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