Chinese researchers invent silicon photonic multiplexer chip that uses light instead of electricity for communication — CCP says China's early steps into light-based chips precede 'major breakthroughs' in three years

CPU Chip.

The race to silicon photonics has begun to heat up, with Chinese researchers developing early light-based chips. Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times reports that researchers at Fudan University have developed a "silicon photonic integrated high-order mode multiplexer chip", or more simply put, a multiplexer that sends instructions via light rather than via electricity.

The multiplexer is a switch that can receive multiple inputs and send them through a single output, used to select data from, for example, multiple memory chips. Tests from Fudan University show that its silicon photonic multiplexer supports 38 Tbps, capable of transferring 4.75 trillion LLM parameters per second. The multiplexer matters because it sends data and instructions via light rather than electrons, making it the newest member of a very young wave of photonics-based chips.