Optica and the Consortium for On-Board Optics (COBO) are partnering to host the first annual Co-Packaged and Pluggable Optics Industry Summit Oct. 26-27. The two-day event will be held at the DuPont Silicon Valley Technology and Innovation Center in Sunnyvale, Calif. The event will feature presentations from Microsoft, Google, Meta, Intel, NVIDIA, Arista, Juniper Networks, Marvell, Infinera, Broadcom, Corning, MACOM, Molex, HG Genuine, Ayar Labs, and more. “We are in a transition period,” said Jose Pozo, Optica CTO. “As the global bandwidth pressure grows on datacom providers, major corporations need to ensure key photonics technologies are as close as possible to the processing units inside data centers. “There are diverse approaches in the market today, and each company has its own roadmap. For the supply chain to meet industry demands, technology companies and hyperscalers must align several options to offer the fastest, greenest, and most cost-effective path for data center companies including Google, Meta, and Microsoft. There is urgency in coordinating approaches now.” Optica and COBO will host the first annual Co-Packaged Optics and Pluggables Summit Oct. 26-27 in Silicon Valley. Courtesy of Optica. Brad Booth, president of COBO and principal engineer at Azure Hardware Architecture at Microsoft, said, “The growing diversity of optical applications within the data center is driving the increased need to enhance high-speed board-level interconnect systems, and COBO members recognize it is critical for companies to collaborate. We expect important insights and decisions to come from this gathering.” A full event schedule, scheduled speakers, and registration information is available via Optica.org.