en.Wedoany.com Reported - Oriole Networks has partnered with AMD to commercially deploy its PRISM all-photonic network system for the first time, laying the groundwork for larger-scale deployments next year.
PRISM replaces traditional electrical switches with an all-photonic architecture, aiming to provide port-level full-mesh connectivity, thereby eliminating the bottleneck of electrical switches for AI traffic. CEO James Regan stated that the architecture can significantly reduce power consumption, decrease latency, increase bandwidth, and enhance network resilience by eliminating single points of failure.
The PRISM system is agnostic to chip architecture. In this collaboration, AMD tested the PRISM system using its Instinct GPUs and EPYC CPUs to evaluate its ability to scale inference workloads. Regan noted that inference performance is limited by latency. While the current top-tier Broadcom Tomahawk Ultra switch has a latency of 250 nanoseconds, the equivalent PRISM product achieves a latency of 10 nanoseconds, representing an improvement of over an order of magnitude.
In addition to the partnership with AMD, Oriole is raising funds to scale the company and prepare for volume deployments. Regan revealed that the company is in discussions with enterprises, cloud providers (including hyperscalers), and companies with telephone networks and data centers, expecting more deployments next year. The biggest current challenge is dispelling the misconception that "there is no alternative to optical switching."
Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President at Dell'Oro Group, stated that if the technology proves scalable, Oriole is targeting a massive market opportunity. By 2030, the AI backend network is expected to become a market approaching $200 billion, with energy efficiency rapidly becoming as important as bandwidth and latency.
The photonics field is highly competitive. Ciena recently promoted its RLS Hyper Rail photonics system and noted in its second-quarter earnings that it had secured orders from hyperscalers, though the system still includes electrical switches. Companies such as Google, Omnitron, Lumentum, and Calient.AI are exploring optical circuit switching (OCS) solutions based on MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems). OCS is attractive in AI clusters because every watt of power saved can be reallocated to GPUs for large volumes of predictable east-west traffic, but few vendors have demonstrated commercial deployments. Oriole positions itself as a new approach aimed at addressing existing challenges in OCS systems.
The Innovative Optical and Wireless Network Global Forum (IOWN Global Forum) is also driving the evolution from electronics to photonics, with members including Ciena, AMD, Cisco, Ericsson, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, Nokia, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and multiple mobile operators. The forum's goal of achieving an "All-Photonics Network" (APN) aligns most closely with Oriole's direction. IOWN stated that historical barriers to all-photonic networks—including oversized optical transponders, transmission distance limitations, difficulty in wavelength switching, and lack of standards—are beginning to fade, and its network advantages in lower latency, reduced power consumption, higher bandwidth, and greater resilience are similar to those described by Oriole.
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