Lightmatter Unveils Photonic Compute Trays at OCP Global Summit

The new systems, built to Open Rack Version 3 (ORv3) and Modular Hardware System (MHS) standards, represent a shift toward integrating high-bandwidth optical interconnects into standardized server chassis. The 204.8 Tbps switch tray was developed in collaboration with Flex as a production validation platform. It integrates eight Passage CPO engines and Guide DR laser modules into a liquid-cooled 1RU design, achieving two to four times the rack faceplate density of conventional electrical-lane SFP configurations.

The XPU compute tray marks a significant milestone for the "Architecture Vision: Open Silicon Photonics for AI Systems" initiative. By leveraging a major ODM's DC-MHS infrastructure and Corning’s expanded beam optical connectors, the tray houses four accelerator ASICs and two CPUs. This setup provides 102.4 Tbps of scale-up bandwidth, utilizing Lightmatter’s vClick optics—a detachable interface developed with SENKO—to eliminate the need for copper cabling. These prototypes serve as a proof of concept for scaling photonic interconnects within existing rack architectures, addressing the reach constraints that currently limit AI clusters to one or two racks. Lightmatter plans to detail the integration of these MHS-based server platforms in upcoming technical sessions at the summit.