[nsteel]

I understand that CPO reliability concerns are specifically with the laser drivers. It's very expensive to replace your whole chip when one fails. Even if the cables are a concern (I've no idea), having more reliable drivers would still be preferable to less reliable cables, given how much cheaper/easier replacing cables would be (up to a point, of course).

[topspin]

> I understand that CPO reliability concerns are specifically with the laser drivers.

Yes. I've replaced my share of dead transceivers, and I suspect the laser drivers were the failure mode of most of them.

That doesn't fill in the blank for me though: how reliable are high speed, dense microLEDs?

[nsteel]

And are they going to work out any better than Linear Drive Optics, the more obvious alternative?

[topspin]

LDO is just integration. It certainly has value: integration almost always does. So it's clearly the obvious optimization of conventional serial optical communication.

This new TSMC work with parallel incoherent optics is altogether distinct. No DSP. No SerDes. Apples and oranges.

[nsteel]

Ok, but I'm just after solutions to problems I have talking to other chips. I don't mind what's novel and what's optimisation. Whatever is adopted, in either case it's a step-change from the past 20 years of essentially just copper and regular serdes in this space.

And I'm not sure how much of this is actually TSMC's work, the title is misleading.

Edit: actually, they are working on the detector side.