UNIC is a DARPA-funded project that started in 2008 and is slated to run for about five years. Sun/Oracle, Kotura and Luxtera are working to develop this chip-to-chip "high-performance, CMOS-compatible photonic technology for high-throughput, non-blocking and power-efficient intrachip photonic communications networks."
The first application of such technology is targeted for optical interconnects for microprocessors. The goal is to replace high-performance computing clusters with computers that consist of these arrays of microprocessors interconnected by optics. Another goal of the project is to make sure the new devices are "compatible" with CMOS processes in order to also integrate the associated electronic devices. Using its now proven Silicon CMOS Photonics technology, Luxtera has developed transmitters and receivers for the project. Kotura supported the project with new low-power, high-speed modulators made of silicon photonics.
Potential new products are expected by the end of 2012. While these will be initial products, commercialization is not expected until quite some time later, perhaps not until 2016 or so. Meanwhile, Luxtera will continue to use its technology to sell 10, 40 and 100G transceivers and AOCs.
With data rates increasing beyond 10G, chip-to-chip, on-board and board-to-board optical interconnects will become progressively more significant. Even at 10G, traditional printed-circuit boards cannot support transmission beyond about 12 inches without needing re-timers. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, instead of spending money to develop more exotic PCBs using complicated digital signal processing (DSP), it may be time to embrace optical interconnects for both board-level and chip-level.
Showing posts with label Kotura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kotura. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
DARPA and NIST Funded Optical Interconnect Research Projects (Part 1)
While many private sector investments have been made in optical communications over the years, none have contributed as much ongoing support as the US federal government has. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have been at the forefront of funding for decades and are continuing to ante up now.
Some of these projects and how they might impact short-reach optics are reviewed:
TERAPIC™: The TERAPIC (Terabit Photonic Integrated Circuits) project that is funded by NIST has as its goal to "develop technology for optical components that can transmit and receive up to one terabit of data per second over one single-mode fiber, greatly reducing complexity and cost in high-capacity fiber-optic networks."
CyOptics and Kotura have partnered on this project to bring Terabit connectivity to data centers and HPC centers by reducing hundreds of individual components "to less than 10." The project is expected to produce an integrated component that can "transmit and receive up to one Tbps of data over one single-mode fiber across transmission distances of up to two-kilometers." The project team has been successful with 100G and 500G prototype devices that transmit up to two-kilometers and continue to work towards Terabit devices.
The PICs will be monolithic arrays of CWDM lasers and detectors that will be automatically assembled in CyOptics' manufacturing facility in Breinigsville, PA. Kotura has developed two integrated silicon photonics chips—data multiplexing/transmission and data demultiplexing/detection that are integrated into the overall transmit optical sub-assemlbies (TOSAs) and receive optical sub-assemblies (ROSAs) from CyOptics.
The TERAPIC project is set to be completed in 2010 so products are expected to be released in 2011, but early adopter customers have yet to be identified so actual revenue-generating opportunities may still be several years off. Especially since they are targeted for Terabit Ethernet, which has not even started on its standardization tract yet. However, the 100G and 500G parts that were developed could be made production-worthy in the interim.
More on DARPA and NIST-funded projects will be discussed in the coming days.
Some of these projects and how they might impact short-reach optics are reviewed:
TERAPIC™: The TERAPIC (Terabit Photonic Integrated Circuits) project that is funded by NIST has as its goal to "develop technology for optical components that can transmit and receive up to one terabit of data per second over one single-mode fiber, greatly reducing complexity and cost in high-capacity fiber-optic networks."
CyOptics and Kotura have partnered on this project to bring Terabit connectivity to data centers and HPC centers by reducing hundreds of individual components "to less than 10." The project is expected to produce an integrated component that can "transmit and receive up to one Tbps of data over one single-mode fiber across transmission distances of up to two-kilometers." The project team has been successful with 100G and 500G prototype devices that transmit up to two-kilometers and continue to work towards Terabit devices.
The PICs will be monolithic arrays of CWDM lasers and detectors that will be automatically assembled in CyOptics' manufacturing facility in Breinigsville, PA. Kotura has developed two integrated silicon photonics chips—data multiplexing/transmission and data demultiplexing/detection that are integrated into the overall transmit optical sub-assemlbies (TOSAs) and receive optical sub-assemblies (ROSAs) from CyOptics.
The TERAPIC project is set to be completed in 2010 so products are expected to be released in 2011, but early adopter customers have yet to be identified so actual revenue-generating opportunities may still be several years off. Especially since they are targeted for Terabit Ethernet, which has not even started on its standardization tract yet. However, the 100G and 500G parts that were developed could be made production-worthy in the interim.
More on DARPA and NIST-funded projects will be discussed in the coming days.
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