GoKawiilData centre industry weighs replacing copper wiring with optical connections
Digital Realty's chief technology officer Chris Sharp says the data centre industry is moving away from copper for internal networking, though not electrical power or cooling systems. A typical 100MW facility uses around 400 tonnes of copper overall, with up to 20 tonnes used specifically in the wiring that connects servers together. Sharp argues this copper wiring between GPUs and CPUs is now a bottleneck limiting performance.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
If copper interconnects are indeed a speed bottleneck, switching to light-based (optical) connections could let data centres handle the growing computational demands of AI more efficiently. Such a shift, according to Sharp, may also reduce energy consumption tied to signal transmission, though the article does not quantify potential power savings. This suggests optical technology could become a competitive differentiator for data centre operators as AI workloads scale.
- A 100MW data centre uses roughly 400 tonnes of copper, with up to 20 tonnes in server networking wiring.
- Digital Realty's CTO says copper wiring between GPUs and CPUs is slowing down data processing.
- The industry is reportedly exploring light-based alternatives to copper for internal data centre networking.
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Published there as: “Will a switch to light speed cut power use at data centres?”
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