A first processing unit for a computer server apparatus includes a first circuit configured to process a first type of data to be transmitted and received over a communication channel in accordance with a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) protocol, a second circuit configured to process a second type of data to be transmitted and received over the communication channel in accordance with a compute express link (CXL) protocol, and an optical communication interface configured to modulate the first type of data and the second type of data into a first signal in a PAM format to be transmitted over the communication channel to a second processing unit and receive, from the second processing unit over the communication channel, a second signal including either one of the first type of data and the second type of data modulated in the PAM format.