Biren Technology Unveils NPO Interconnect for 1,024 AI Accelerators

Chinese chip startup Biren Technology is turning to optical connectivity as increasingly large AI models strain the bandwidth, latency and power limits of conventional electrical links. Near-packaged optics, or NPO, places optical components closer to computing chips, reducing the distance over which electrical signals must travel and offering a potential path to building larger, more energy-efficient accelerator clusters.

Biren Technology unveiled a supernode solution combining NPO optical interconnects with a distributed, disaggregated architecture. The company said the design can scale a single cluster to as many as 1,024 AI accelerator cards, targeting workloads that require computing resources beyond the practical limits of copper-based links. Biren expects systems using the technology to reach large-scale commercial deployment as early as 2028.