Tech news in 3 minutes
Nvidia Sees AGI While OpenAI Sees Danger
Samtec is leveraging the AI Infra Summit 2026 and ECOC 2026 to demonstrate that high-speed copper and optical interconnects, not just faster accelerators, will determine next-generation AI infrastructure performance. At the AI Infra Summit (Sept 15–17, Santa Clara, booth 304), Samtec will showcase PCI Express 5.0 over FireFly optical cable assemblies, Si-Fly HD 224-Gbps PAM4 co-packaged and near-chip systems, and early 448-Gbps PAM4/PAM6 technology. The centerpiece is the Si-Fly HD CPX architecture—an electrically pluggable platform for co-packaged copper and optics fitting a 95×95 mm or smaller substrate. Its SFCM connector mounts directly to the package substrate, mating with Samtec’s SFCC cable assembly or compatible optics. This design avoids ball-grid-array breakout loss and long PCB traces, enabling a complete passive direct-attach-copper channel at 224 Gbps. Signal integrity becomes critical at 224 Gbps; shortening the electrical path preserves quality while giving architects flexibility to use copper for short reaches and optics for longer distances. Technical presentations by Matt Burns will address combining copper and optics in 224/448-Gbps systems and a practical route to 400G AI scale-up and scale-out implementations. At ECOC 2026 (Sept 21–23, Málaga), Samtec will join the Optical Internetworking Forum’s live interoperability demo with 39 member companies, proving multivendor components can work together—essential for AI infrastructure where no single supplier covers the entire data path. Samtec’s broader message: AI’s next performance gains depend on moving data efficiently, not just calculating faster. By demonstrating dense copper and optical systems with pluggable architectures