Marvell demos 2nm optical interconnects for 3.2T AI data center links at ECOC 2026

Marvell Technology just pulled back the curtain on what it calls industry-first 2nm optical interconnect technologies, designed to keep pace with AI data centers that are hungry for bandwidth speeds most of us can barely conceptualize. The showcase is happening at the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) 2026, running September 20 through 24 in Málaga, Spain. The headline demo: a 2nm 400G-per-lane optical PAM4 solution built to support the jump from 1.6 terabit to 3.2 terabit link speeds. What Marvell is actually showing off The company is running 38 technology demonstrations at ECOC, spanning optical PAM4, coherent links, and the silicon that powers them. Among the standout pieces is an 800G ZR/ZR+ pluggable module. What makes it notable is the integration of MACsec security, powered by Marvell’s Libra DSP. MACsec is an encryption standard for network traffic at the hardware layer, which means data gets protected before it ever leaves the module rather than relying on software further up the stack. Marvell is also demonstrating a 2nm 1.6T ZR solution alongside coherent-lite technologies. Perhaps the most ambitious demonstration is a 102.4T co-packaged optics (CPO) p...