At 1.6‑terabit speeds I become both the performance enabler and the power problem – I decide whether 200‑gigabit‑per‑lane links hit their targets inside strict power and thermal budgets. Higher lane speeds bring more loss, more noise and heavier error correction, so I must recover the signal while sipping power. Independent research ranks my layer among the highest‑conviction bottlenecks, noting the semiconductor side tends to capture more value than the module‑assembly side – an analytical judgment, not a filed number.