Huawei pitches near-packaged optics as co-packaged costs bite
- ID
- 24184
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 14 Sep 2026, 8:30 PM
- Fetched
- 14 Sep 2026, 9:15 PM
- Provider
- The Register
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.theregister.com/networks/2026/09/14/huawei-pitches-near-packaged-optics-as-co-packaged-costs-bite/5296164
- Source URL
- https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
Summary
- Score
- 4.5
- Created
- 14 Sep 2026, 9:17 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersai_ml_learnerssaas_founders
What happened
Huawei showcased a 7.2 Tbps near-packaged optics (NPO) module at CIOE Shenzhen (Sep 9-11), positioning it as a pragmatic alternative to co-packaged optics (CPO) for AI datacenter networks. By integrating the DSP into the switch ASIC rather than keeping it in a separate module, Huawei claims latency drops from 100ns to 10ns and power consumption falls ~60%. The module will be part of Huawei's next-gen SuperPOD AI systems.
Why it matters
If you operate or procure AI training infrastructure, NPO is emerging as a cheaper-to-maintain middle ground between today's pluggable modules and the expensive, hard-to-repair CPO path — but it's a vendor pitch ahead of standards, so don't commit to NPO as a architecture choice yet. For Malaysian datacenter operators scaling for AI workloads, the power and latency claims are worth tracking as they could influence switch procurement within 1-2 years.
Discussion angle
NPO vs CPO vs pluggable: which matters more for Southeast Asian datacenter builders — the 60% power reduction claim, or the repairability argument that CPO's failed optical engines are hard to swap in the field?