Agilex® 7 FPGAs Demonstrate Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO) for AI and Cloud Infrastructure
Occasional ContributorElectronics Infrastructure Trends
To build more efficient AI and cloud infrastructure, every component’s role in the data path should be scrutinized. Based on industry analysis and recent standardization efforts, one of the key innovations gaining traction in high-speed connectivity is Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO). Traditional optical modules include internal DSPs to clean up signals before and after transmission. However, LPO modules remove the DSP circuitry and rely on the host/receiver devices to handle signal conditioning. This change results in significant system improvements, reducing power consumption, simplifying module design, and lowering latency.
One of the foundations for infrastructure interoperability is the CEI-112G-Linear-PAM4 specification, which defines linear signaling over short electrical channels. The 100G-DR-LPO specification builds on that foundation by standardizing 100G/lane optical interfaces using single-mode fiber up to 500 meters.
The benefits of LPO extend beyond signal integrity. Removing the DSP from the optical module reduces power consumption by 30%–40% compared to retimed optics. This helps lower operational costs and simplifies thermal design, which is especially important in dense AI and HPC environments. The simplified signal path also reduces latency, which is valuable for applications like real-time inference, low-latency storage, and high-frequency trading.
Industry’s First Public Demo of LPO Modules Interoperating with FPGAs
At their Innovators Day 2025 event, Altera publicly unveiled its interop demonstration. Agilex™ 7 FPGAs and SoCs feature high-speed transceiver I/Os meeting the new LPO 100G standards , along with other hard IP blocks for 400G MAC/PCS/FEC and PCIe, reducing the need to create custom HDL code implemented in FPGA fabric soft logic, ultimately improving designers’ productivity.
The FPGAs’ transceiver I/Os with integrated ADC/DAC and DSP-based equalization, Agilex 7 devices are well-suited to support the LPO architecture. Shipping in volume production, Agilex™ 7 devices’ FHT transceivers support up to 116G PAM4 per lane.
For the interop demo, Altera implemented a 4x 100G design transmitting 400GbE traffic with 100G-DR4 LPO modules, to support hyperscale data centers, AI clusters, and HPC systems. In lab testing, Agilex 7 FPGA-based cards paired with 100G-DR LPO modules, resulting in a pre-FEC bit error rate (BER) of approximately 1E-08, which is 100 times better than the 1E-06 threshold defined in the LPO MSA specification . The FEC bin count was also well below the maximum allowed by the LPO specification. While these results are based on controlled conditions and may vary in deployment, they suggest a performance margin that could translate to 70–90% improvement in error correction headroom.
Customer Benefits of Altera Agilex 7 FPGAs
Agilex 7 devices come in a variety of densities, features, and package options. Based on the 2nd gen. HyperFlex™ technology, these FPGAs deliver industry’s highest FPGA performance along with options for integrated ARM core processors, in-package HBM2E memory, and DDR5. Agilex 7 FPGA-based SmartNICs, Data Processing Units (DPUs), AI accelerators, and custom compute offload engines are available in a variety of board form factors (PCIe, SoM, etc.) from Altera Solution Acceleration Partners. Because FPGAs are re-programmable, customers can also implement additional value-added features, such as AI inferencing or AI pre-processing, security, or telemetry functionality, without needing new hardware.
The Next Wave of LPO Systems
Looking ahead, Altera is contributing to the development of next-generation standards CEI-224G-Linear-PAM4 and 200G-DR-LPO. Agilex 7 devices were designed to scale from 10G to 400G/800G and are suitable for meeting these future requirements, helping customers stay aligned with evolving performance and bandwidth needs.
For customers evaluating how to reduce power, cost, and latency in their next-generation high-performance system, Agilex 7 FPGAs and SoCs, combined with LPO modules, offer a practical and forward-compatible solution. Whether you're designing SmartNICs or scaling out cloud infrastructure, our team is available to support your evaluation and deployment process.
Contact Altera to explore how to begin innovating on your next design.
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