LPO, NPO, and CPO are optical interconnect technologies designed to address bandwidth, power efficiency, and latency challenges in AI and HPC data centers as they scale beyond traditional electrical solutions. LPO (Linear-drive Pluggable Optics), proposed by Macom and NVIDIA in 2022, eliminates DSP chips for direct analog signal processing, reducing power consumption by 30–50% and latency while lowering costs.
Huawei announced the Ascend 960 SuperPoD at HUAWEI CONNECT 2026, featuring NPO technology to address data communication bottlenecks in large-scale AI clusters. The system supports up to 4,096 NPU cards and uses Near-Packaged Optics to reduce power consumption and improve reliability, marking a shift from individual chip competition to integrated system-level AI infrastructure.