Lumai Iris: World's First Optical Computing System for Real-Time Billion-Parameter LLM Inference

GlobeNewsWire·high signal

Oxford spinout Lumai launched the Iris Nova optical inference server on April 28, running Llama 8B and 70B in real time using a hybrid digital-optical architecture. The optical tensor engine performs core matrix operations at up to 90% lower energy consumption than GPUs. Available now for evaluation — marks the first commercial optical system to successfully run billion-parameter LLMs.