40-Gb Optical Active Cable

Luxtera Inc. of Carlsbad, Calif., has introduced Blazar, the first 40-Gb optical active cable, which combines optical modules and copper cables to deliver high-bandwidth interconnect.

Blazar, the first commercial product by the Carlsbad, Calif., startup -- a spinoff of the California Institute of Technology -- uses CMOS photonics technology, the silicon technology used to make microprocessors, to deliver 40 Gb of data at 20-Gb cable prices, Luxtera said in a statement.

“Blazar is an amazing accomplishment, not only for Luxtera, but for the industry," said Alex Dickinson, CEO and co-founder of Luxtera. "As the world’s first CMOS photonics product, Blazar breaks traditional optical module cost barriers by combining electronics and optical components into a single CMOS die.”

He said the advance will accelerate the industry's adoption of optics for mainstream applications. Target markets include high-performance computing InfiniBand and 40-Gb/s proprietary rack-to-rack interconnect applications. With support for Quad Data Rate. Blazar’s 40-Gb/s bandwidth and extended reach of up to 300 meters overcomes speed and range barriers that have limited InfiniBand applications to small computer clusters, Luxtera said in a statement.

Blazar eases constraints on computer cluster design and location, as its high density and reach enable data center customers to fully populate racks with servers and switches. This can eliminate the need to expand physical facilities in order to increase computing capacity, Luxtera said.

It also provides better power consumption, footprint density and reliability, by combining single-mode fiber media with simple and rugged quad small form-factor pluggable MSA (multisource agreement) connectors, Luxtera said. Blazar’s power consumption is 2.2 W per cable end, resulting in .05-W per gigabit of data. This reduces the overall power consumption that data centers require to power the network equipment and significantly reduces cooling costs.

“Optical active cables are the new trend in optical interconnects, combining the benefits of optical modules and copper cables to deliver a high performance, low-cost connectivity option,” said Marek Tlalka, Luxtera’s vice president of marketing.

By permanently attaching fiber cable to optical transceivers and powering four transmitters with a single hermetically sealed laser, Blazar offers a preassembled plug-and-play solution that lowers installation and maintenance costs while providing better reliability than traditional VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser)-based solutions, Luxtera said.

Blazar connects to a system via a QSFP MSA-compliant connector cage. The electrical interface is SFP+ compliant, which enables it to support data rates of one to 10.5 Gb per transport lane for a total throughput of up to 42 Gb/s. Blazar uses single-mode fiber, which costs less and performs better than multimode fiber, further reducing interconnect costs while extending reach to 300 meters without additional electronic dispersion compensation electronics traditionally associated with VCSEL-based optical modules.

Blazar OAC is available in multiple cable lengths from one to 300 meters. Luxtera will begin sampling Blazar this year, and production quantities will be available in 2008.

For more information, visit: luxtera.com; e-mail: [email protected]

Luxtera Inc.
1819 Aston Ave.
Carlsbad, CA 92008
Phone: (760) 448-3520
Fax: (760) 448-3530

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