December 28, 2025
Waves vs Wires: place your bets
Fast GPU Interconnect over Radio
Skinny radio cables aim to dethrone chunky copper—commenters are torn
TLDR: Startups want to link GPUs with radio-wave cables promising longer reach, lower power, and big speed, challenging copper and fiber. Commenters are split between “cute and clever” hype and hard-nosed skepticism about interference and reliability, making this a high-stakes bet for future AI machines.
Skinny radio cables want to replace chunky copper inside AI supercomputers, and the crowd is… intrigued. Point2 and AttoTude say their waveguide “radio cords” can haul crazy-fast data across racks—longer reach than copper, cheaper and lower-power than fiber optics—all while dodging the so‑called “copper cliff.” One commenter cooed, “Tiny waveguides… Cute”, setting the tone: half the thread swooned over the sleek look, the other half side‑eyed the hype. Skeptics sniped that “cute” won’t help when server rooms are RF jungles, asking how these cables handle interference, heat, and bends. Meanwhile, spec-sheet stans cheered the promise of 1.6 terabits per second and claims of ultra‑low latency, sparking a mini flame war over whether “one‑thousandth of optics” is believable or just marketing magic. Memes landed fast: the “copper cliff” became a boss level, and someone dubbed the new cords “terabit tinsel.” Context for the non-nerds: GPUs (graphics chips) power AI; more GPUs need faster links, and copper’s hitting physics limits. If radio wins, data centers could get slimmer cables and less power burn. If it flops, it’s another shiny toy. The vibe right now: cautiously excited. Curious? Check Point2 and the scale‑up plans hinted by Nvidia for the stakes.
Key Points
- •Point2 Technology and AttoTude propose radio-based interconnect cables as an alternative to copper and optics for GPU-to-GPU links.
- •Copper cables face physical limits at high data rates (skin effect), forcing shorter, thicker, higher-power connections in dense data centers.
- •Point2 plans chips for a 1.6 Tb/s cable using eight polymer waveguides, each waveguide carrying 448 Gb/s at 90 GHz and 225 GHz.
- •Both startups claim 10–20 m reach; Point2 reports one-third optical power and cost, and latency as low as one-thousandth of optics.
- •Nvidia aims to scale systems from 72 to 576 GPUs by 2027, intensifying interconnect demands that radio-based cables aim to meet.