Optical interconnects at the board-level have historically just been optical pluggable standardized transceivers like the SFP or XFP with associated cable assemblies. But, of late, new technologies have stretched this traditional view to miniaturized modules using parallel optics that can be leveraged for several interconnect types – board-to-board, on-board and in some cases even chip-to-chip and on-chip. The possibilities of board-level optical interconnection using these devices holds promise for solving many issues ranging from multi-core processors to high-performance computing clusters. And, there are several optical components vendors that are banking on it – Avago Technologies, Intel and Luxtera standing at the forefront.
However, today, even the cheapest optical interconnects still cost more than twice what a copper one does. But, according to all of the above mentioned manufacturers, each of their technologies will eventually be able to reach a less than $1/Gigabit price tag. The way in which they will get there is common to all – highly-automated, vertically-integrated manufacturing. Whether this will actually be achievable is still a question, but I believe that at least Intel and Avago Technologies have the track record in manufacturing technology that should heed them the benefit of the doubt.
Find out more from a recently released report I wrote for CIR: New Revenue Opportunities for Optical Interconnects: A Market and Technology Forecast. And, stay tuned at this blog for more on each of these technologies.
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