Optical PCIe Extends the Reach of AI Rack Design
Data Center Knowledge, Monday, October 19th, 2026
Lumentum, Astera Labs and Corning demonstrated optical PCIe at OCP, extending reach beyond copper for disaggregated AI racks.
At the 2026 OCP Global Summit, Lumentum, Astera Labs and Corning showed a rack-level proof of concept that carries PCIe over multimode fiber using VCSEL-based optics.
As PCIe data rates rise, copper links face tighter limits on reach, signal integrity, power and cable bulk, with passive copper limited to a few meters while optical links can span tens to hundreds of meters inside a data center.
The companies say optical PCIe could enable more flexible, disaggregated AI rack designs with fewer retimers.
Lumentum stresses that the demo is a proof of concept, not a product.