MACOM Introduces PCIe and CXL Optical Chipset for High-Speed, Low-Latency Data Center Connectivity

MACOM announced a new chipset enabling PCI Express (PCIe) and Compute Express Link (CXL) connectivity over optical fiber, addressing distance limitations in data centers and high-performance computing environments. The chipset, comprising the MATA-38794 transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and the MALD-38795 VCSEL driver, supports high-speed, low-latency communication by consolidating sideband signaling into a single fiber pair, reducing the cost and complexity of optical transceivers and cabling.

The chipset extends PCIe connectivity up to 100 meters over multimode fiber, supporting eight PCIe 6.0 lanes at 64 Gbps PAM4. It transports sideband signals, including clock, reset, wake, and communication channels like USB and Ethernet, over an additional fiber, ensuring PCIe bus transparency. This enables disaggregated computing, connecting components such as GPUs and CPUs to memory with reduced latency and power consumption compared to traditional server architectures.

MACOM will demonstrate the PCIe 6.0 solution at CIOE 2025 in Stand 11D31 from September 10 to 12, 2025, in Shenzhen, China, and at ECOC 2025 in Booth C3419 from September 29 to October 1, 2025, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Samples of the MATA-38794 TIA and MALD-38795 VCSEL Driver are available now. More information is available at www.macom.com.