Embodiments herein relate to systems, apparatuses, or techniques for using an optical physical layer die within a system-on-a-chip to optically couple with an optical physical layer die on another package to provide high-bandwidth memory access between the system-on-a-chip and the other package. In embodiments, the other package may be a large optically connected memory device that includes a memory controller coupled with an optical physical layer die, where the memory controller is coupled with memory. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.