Facing US chip curbs, China launches photonics lab to power AI with light
6 hours ago
- #Semiconductors
- #Photonics
- #AI
- China established the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Integrated Photonic Computing Chips and Systems, its first industry-academia platform focused on photonic computing.
- Photonics computing offers advantages in bandwidth, latency, and energy efficiency, potentially providing higher performance with less power than traditional semiconductors.
- Photonics chips use light particles (photons) for data transmission and computation, which travel faster and generate less heat than electrons in silicon circuits.
- The lab will research photonic chip architectures, silicon-photonics integration, optical components, and algorithms for commercial applications.
- The launch responds to global demand for computing power in AI, as conventional semiconductors face physical limits from energy consumption and performance needs.