About the talk: We are living in a transformative era where artificial intelligence is not just reshaping industries—it’s redefining the very infrastructure that supports our digital world. At the heart of this transformation lies an insatiable demand for data bandwidth, driven by the explosive growth of AI models, applications, and services. From generative AI to real-time analytics, the scale and speed at which data must be processed, transferred, and stored are pushing the limits of our current technological capabilities.

In this talk, we’ll explore how data center infrastructure and high-speed connectivity has become the backbone of this AI revolution. We’ll look into the architecture of modern AI data centers and then delve into the communication infrastructure that enables these systems to function efficiently—covering several different kinds of interconnect technologies. Along the way, we’ll discuss the current state of the technology, the challenges we face in scaling it further, and offer a forward-looking perspective on the innovations and solutions that will shape the data centers of the future.

About the speaker: Nicola Da Dalt is Associate VP, Mixed Signal Design at Marvell, where he works on advanced development in mixed-signal design for wireline communications. With a distinguished career spanning, AMD, Altera, Infineon Technologies, and Telecom Italia Lab, Nicola brings over two decades of experience in systems and design for communication and compute infrastructure. His technical leadership has been pivotal in advancing high-speed clocking systems, digital PLLs, and data transmission architecture. Nicola holds a Master’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Padova and a Ph.D. from RWTH Aachen University. He has also served as a visiting scholar at Stanford University. He is the co-author of the book Understanding Jitter and Phase Noise: A Circuits and Systems Perspective.