News

17 November 2009

 

Luxtera launches first single-chip transceiver for motherboard deployment

At Supercomputing 2009 (SC09) in Portland, OR, fabless silicon photonics firm Luxtera Inc of Carlsbad, CA, USA is demonstrating its new OptoPHY family of PCB-mountable optical transceivers, which deliver low-cost optical connectivity and pave the way to breaking the $1 per Gb/s cost barrier, the firm claims.

Combining electronics and optics on a single CMOS silicon chip, OptoPHY’s small form-factor enables optics-on-a-motherboard deployment for high-performance point-to-point connectivity, says Luxtera. The firm claims that the new product line signifies the next step in optical technology evolution from pluggable modular solutions to chip-on-board solutions with future opto-electronic system-on-a-chip integration.

“10Gb/s is the new system interconnect ‘currency’,” says Brad Smith, senior VP analyst at transceiver market research firm LightCounting. “But the current generation of high-speed systems for switch/routers, supercomputers, telecom equipment, datacom and servers are built internally with 2.5G/5G SNAP12 technology developed in 1998 – three years before the iPod! This requires four transmitter/receivers, at 2.5W, costing $400+ each. Full duplex connections cost $1600, burn 10W power, a large board space,” he adds. “The market begs for a new solution. Optical technology, once relegated to the long haul and inter-system interconnects, now moves inside the box and is clearly heading for optics-on-a-chip.”

With OptoPHY, Luxtera aims to replace legacy optical modules with high-density, integrated chip-on-board transceivers. Currently available in one- and four-channel configurations, and next year in 12-channel configurations, OptoPHY offers 10Gb/s per channel data rates to produce high-bandwidth parallel connectivity. It also claims the highest footprint density per Gigabit, which enables flexible system design and allows the transceivers to be placed inside a system to maximize front-panel connector density, simplifying thermal and EMI management. Using only 20mW of power per Gigabit, OptoPHY is claimed to be the lowest-power optical transceiver solution on the market.

“To address the need for increasing data rates, data centers have had to choose between lower-cost, lower-performance electrical interconnects or higher-performance, higher-cost optical interconnects,” says Steve Conway, research VP for High Performance Computing at market analyst firm IDC. “Using silicon photonics technology, Luxtera’s new OptoPHY product line is designed to address this problem by delivering high-performance optical interconnects at costs below $1 per Gb/s,” he adds. “Providing high-performance connectivity in a small form-factor at more affordable price points represents a major milestone for optical communication.”

OptoPHY also builds on Luxtera’s Blazar active optical cable (AOC) product line (launched in August 2007) by providing data centers with extended reach of up to 4000m, enabling flexible data-center layouts in a multi-building campus environment. Overcoming the 100m range barriers of legacy multi-mode fiber VCSEL optics, OptoPHY offers the longest reach for on-board optics, suiting enterprise networking, InfiniBand, storage, Ethernet and backplane applications, Luxtera claims.

“By utilizing Luxtera’s silicon CMOS photonics technology platform, the OptoPHY product line breaks cost and power consumption barriers of traditional optics and positions us to ultimately deliver optical interconnects at the price points of copper,” reckons the firm’s says CEO Greg Young. “Using the same chip design platform as our award-winning AOC, OptoPHY successfully enables optical deployment on a motherboard to offer a new direction for the architecture of system interconnects,” he adds.

At SC09, Luxtera is sampling one- (LUX6001) and four-channel (LUX6004) OptoPHY chips, with production scheduled for mid-2010. 12-channel OptoPHY will sample next year. The devices are available with multiple optical connector options for serial and parallel 10Gb/s applications. Pricing varies depending on the number of channels, connector options and volume, reaching sub-$1 per Gb/s price points in 12-channel configurations.

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Visit: www.luxtera.com