$ALAB

In the AI Era, the 'Retimer' Rises — The Key Component That Resuscitates Signals The retimer is emerging as a hidden core component of the AI chip era. A retimer is a part that sits between chips, reviving weakened signals and retransmitting them. Its role is growing as communication speeds between the CPU and GPU increase. Inside a server, CPU-to-CPU and CPU-to-GPU communication runs over PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express). As PCIe advances through each generation, communication speeds rise, giving way to channel loss — the phenomenon in which the signal weakens and its waveform becomes distorted. On the 24th, a senior official at a domestic system semiconductor company said, "CPUs talk to each other, and CPUs and GPUs communicate heavily over PCIe," adding, "As these dis