Test and Measurement: Viavi intros AI infra testing

As broad interest in and use of artificial intelligence and other high-performance compute surges, Viavi Solutions has introduced what it says is the first solution to address testing and validation needs of the emerging 1.6 terabits per second (Tb/s) Ethernet ecosystem based on 224G SerDes. The new ONE-1600 testing module adds to Viavi’s ONE LabPro platform, which also includes an 800 Gbps test module.

The ONE-1600 is initially available in a two-port configuration, Viavi said in a release, adding that ONE LabPro supports up to 64 x 1.6 Tb/s test ports using ONE-1600 modules or 128 x 800 Gb/s test ports using its HSE-800 modules.

“Use of optical connectivity in AI clusters accelerated adoption of 1.6Tb transceivers and 224G SerDes,” said Dr. Vladimir Kozlov, CEO and chief analyst at LightCounting, in a comment “LightCounting increased forecast for these products to a million units in 2025, up from tens of thousands in 2024. We have never seen such a sharp ramp for new products. This will be a stress test for the whole supply chain.”

Osa Mok, CMO of InnoLight, said that InnoLight has invested “significantly” in developing 1.6T products based on 224G SerDes technology. “Our new 1.6T optics enable cloud operators to rapidly upgrade their compute and networks to meet end customer demand,” Mok commented, adding that Viavi’s testing solutions “accelerated our development and assured product quality.”

In other test news:

-The United Arab Emirates marked its first flights of High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPS) with Earth-observing payloads. The HAPS, which flew for several days during each test mission, were put up by Mira Aerospace, a joint venture between geospatial analytics company Bayanat and U.S.-based UAV manufacturer UAVOS. Mira focuses on HAPS as a vehicle for observation, RF sensing and communications and has conducted 5G testing in other instances; it said that its tech will support both the collection of high-resolution observation data and as a platform for “data and communication services for uninhabited areas either as an independent network or via 4G and 5G service providers, with high flexibility in flight path control and direction.”

–Keysight Technologies has introduced a new, general-purpose 14-bit analog-to-digital oscilloscope, which it says provides four time the signal resolution and a noise floor half that of other, similar oscilloscopes. The InfiniiVision HD3 series of instruments has a custom application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and deep memory architecture, Keysight added, and “delivers the precision and accuracy needed to identify the smallest and most infrequent signal glitches during design debugging.”

-At the recent SemiCon Taiwan show, power management and industrial automation company Delta focused on the emerging use of digital twins and artificial intelligence in semiconductor manufacturing. The company highlighted its digital twin, developed on Nvidia’s Omniverse platform, which it said can “can virtually link specific [semiconductor] production lines and aggregate data from a diverse range of equipment and systems to generate synthetic data to train its computer models to achieve 90% accuracy.”

-ICYMI: How is AI being applied in network testing and assurance? Stephen Douglas, head of market strategy at Spirent Communications and Raj Savoor, VP of network analytics and automation at AT&T discussed this topic in-depth with RCR’s Kelly Hill in a webinar that is now available on-demand. Keep an eye out for the upcoming accompanying editorial report, available soon!