Molex just purchased Luxtera’s AOC business completing the circle that all the other optical interconnect players started. During the telecom bust in the early 2000’s, Amphenol, FCI, Molex and Tyco Electronics all either de-emphasized their optical interconnect businesses or exited them all together. Now, they have all re-entered. Why?
While they are all working on more high-speed copper solutions like the one Tyco showed for 25G and beyond at SC10, I beleive they also see the writing on the wall. While they won’t admit it, I think they know that beyond 100G copper cable interconnects may have FINALLY reached the end of their useful life. At 40G and 100G, for example, there is still no twisted-pair solution and the direct-attach copper can only reach about 7m reliably.
It has been interesting watching the choices these traditional connector companies have made:
- Amphenol: It never exited the optical interconnect business, but left the transceiver products to Avago, Finisar, JDSU and others until recently. It has a stronghold on the short-reach copper direct-attach market so has inroads at customers for its AOCs and modules.
- FCI: Exited the optics business entirely for a few years but then started again from scratch and subsequently purchased MergeOptics in February 2010. MergeOptics is what was left of Infineon Technologies and still has strong technical abilities in short-reach products. It also has the building blocks to provide all-optical interconnects all the way from the chip (see my previous posts on MergeOptics). They can provide both AOCs and transceiver modules so have the ability to cover all high-speed markets in InfiniBand, Ethernet and Fibre Channel.
- Molex: Purchased Luxtera’s AOC business recently. So while FCI and Tyco are stressing short-wavelength technologies, Molex has turned to custom long-wavelength ones. Luxtera’s technology is based on 1490nm devices, which really doesn’t matter if you’re purchasing an AOC, but will matter if you want transceiver modules. According to company representatives, they will eventually get back into supplying transceiver modules, but there has been no evidence of this as of yet. Perhaps the possession of Luxtera AOCs will prompt this.
- Tyco Electronics: Tyco exited the transceiver business in the early 2000’s, but still had a very active fiber-optic interconnect business – especially for premise wiring (AMP NETCONNECT). It acquired Zarlink Semiconductor’s optical products group in May 2010. Zarlink is on the forefront of parallel-optics technology and was one of the first to introduce AOCs. It does not appear that Tyco intends to supply optical transceiver modules again.
I would never bet against copper re-inventing itself in order to meet the demands of future high-speed networks, but with optical 10G dominating the market currently and 40/100G optical products starting to emerge, it will be an uphill battle for copper solutions to gain traction. And beyond 100G, all bets are off. I’m thinking that these companies are reaching the same conclusions and that if they don’t add optical capabilities soon, they may render themselves obsolete within the next ten years or so. That's not to say that there won't be a vibrant businesses in both copper structured cabling and interconnects over the next ten years - there will be. But I think that R&D dollars will be better spent on optical interconnect technologies rather than trying to figure out how to run 25G signals using copper interconnects (including backplanes.) Or how to convince end-user customers in the US that a shielded structured cabling solution for 40G is better than a short-reach optical one because it will be cheaper - but at what cost to power, cooling and space?
What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
The C2OI DARPA program is funding on-going optical components projects. Its end goal is to “demonstrate optical interconnections between multiple silicon chips that will enable data communications between chips to be as seamless as data communication within a chip.”
This program grew out of work initially done by Agilent (now Avago Technologies) under the DARPA Parallel Optical Network Interconnect (PONI) project. Agilent/Avago developed a 30 Gbps transmitter (2.5 Gbps/lane) that was eventually standardized as the SNAP-12.
IBM (with help from Avago) extended the work originally done by Agilent/Avago into inter-chip connections and in 2009 achieved optical interconnection with 16 parallel lanes of 10G. By early 2010, IBM was extending this work into board-to-board applications which resulted in the new Avago MicroPOD™ product that was specifically designed for IBM’s POWER7™ supercomputer.
While it was designed for HPC server interconnects, the MicroPOD could be used for on-board or chip-to-chip interconnects as well. As mentioned in previous posts, the devices use a newly designed miniature detachable connector from US CONEC called PRIZM™ LightTurn™. The system has separate transmitter and receiver modules that are connected through a 12-fiber ribbon. Each lane supports up to 12.5 Gbps. It uses 850nm VCSEL and PIN diode arrays. The embedded modules can be used for any board-level or I/O-level application by either using two PRIZM LightTurn connectors or one PRIZM LightTurn and one MPO.
While MicroPOD is targeted at high-density HPC environments, a natural expansion of its market reach would be into switches and routers in high-density Ethernet data center environments. While this may not happen in the next few years, for me it looks like it could be a more cost-effective solution than say a 40G serial one.
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.
Just a few years ago, laser designers were struggling with stability of their 10G VCSELs. But now, at least one, VI Systems GmbH, claims it will have production-ready 40G VCSELs within the next few years. The German start-up has developed two products it believes will take VCSELs beyond 10G applications - a directly-modulated (DM) device and an electro-optic modulated (EOM) DBR VCSEL. Both are short-wavelength (850nm) lasers.
In a recent press release, VI Systems explains that it “developed the VCSEL products at a wavelength of 850 nm along with a range of extremely fast integrated circuits based on the SiGe BiCMOS (silicon-germanium bipolar junction transistors in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) technology. The company uses a patent pending micro-assembly platform for the integration of the opto-electrical components and for alignment to a standard high performance multi-mode glass-based fiber.” The start-up has been presenting data supporting its claims of highly stable devices for more than a year now. It gets there by changing the laser active region material and structure to InAs quantum dot (QD).
Not only is VI Systems working on innovative laser structures, it has also developed new electro-optic integration methods to further reduce the cost of these devices.
I’ve noted in previous posts how VCSELs are the key to low-cost optical networks in the data center. These new VCSELs and packaging methods would bring an even more cost-effective “serial” solution for 40/100G. They could also be used for very short-reach optical connections like for chip-to-chip, on-board or board-to-board. Perhaps these inventive products will rival Avago’s MicroPOD and Luxtera’s OptoPHY (also in previous posts). Based on the presentations that VI Systems has released, it sure appears that its management completely understand the needs of both the data center and optical interconnect markets so could very well give incumbents in the industry some competition.
I was reviewing some research I recently conducted for the Optical Interconnect report I wrote for CIR and realized that I hadn’t yet “blogged” about what I would consider some exciting new product directions that many optical components suppliers are taking. We’ve been talking about optical integration for many years and some companies, like Infinera, have actually implemented it into their real-world products. But there are more cases of this than ever before and I think we’re on the brink of some true industry breakthroughs using what many have deemed “optical engines.”
Here is a summary of the component companies and their associated optical engine products:
- BinOptics – it uses its InP PICs to build "custom integrated microphotonics solutions" for its customers
- ColorChip – its silicon photonics is at the center of its 40G QSFP modules
- Lightwire – its Opto-electronic Application Specific Integrated Subsystem (OASIS) promises low power and higher density
- MergeOptics/FCI – OptoPack is at the center of its 10G and above transceiver designs
- Reflex Photonics – LightAble is the building block for its transceiver modules
- Santur – DFB/waveguide architecture has promise for not only tunable lasers, but many different optical interconnects
So what’s the big deal? In the past, optical integration was a science project looking for an application. Now, these companies are leveraging their research to create products such as QSFP modules or tunable transceivers that are selling today. So even though you could make these transceivers tiny, they package them in standard form factors in order to develop a revenue stream in hopes that the technology can truly be used for miniature devices in the near future. Pretty smart business plan I think – especially since we’ve already seen a glimpse of the miniaturization products with Avago’s MicroPOD, Intel’s Light Peak and Luxtera’s OptoPhy, which can also be considered optical engines. And, which are supposedly on the cusp of true adoption into active equipment.
Yesterday I wrote about Avago’s new miniaturized transmitters and receivers so today I’d like to introduce you to a similar product from Luxtera. Well known for its CMOS photonics technology, Luxtera actually introduced its OptoPHY transceivers first – in late 2009.
Luxtera took a different approach to its new high-density, optical interconnect solution. It is a transceiver module and is based on LW (1490nm) optics. Just like Avago’s devices, the transceivers use 12-fiber ribbon cables provided by Luxtera, but that’s really were the similarities end. The entire 10G–per-lane module only uses about 800mW compared to Avago's 3W, and they are true transceivers as opposed to separate transmitters and receivers. Luxtera is shipping its device to customers, but have not announced which ones yet.
In addition to the projected low cost for these devices, what should also be noted is that all of the solutions mentioned in the last three entries – Intel’s Light Peak; Avago’s MicroPOD and Luxtera’s OptoPHY – have moved away from the pluggable module product theme to board-mounted devices. This in and of itself may not seem significant until you think about why there were pluggable products to begin with. The original intent was to give OEMs and end users flexibility in design so they could use an electrical, SW optical or LW optical device in a port depending on what length of cable needed to be supported. You could also grow as you needed to – so only populate those ports required at the time of installation and add others when necessary. The need for this flexibility has seemed to have waned in recent years in favor of density, lower cost and lower power consumption. The majority of pluggable ports are now optical ones, so why not just move back to board-mounted products that can achieve the miniaturization, price points and lower power consumption?
On-board interconnects have for some time just been handled with copper traces, but with data rates now reaching beyond 10G, this is ripe for change. In fact, it is already changing; evidenced by the big splash IBM and Avago Technologies made at this year's OFC/NFOEC conference. The computer giant and transceiver manufacturer teamed to develop what they are calling "the fastest, most energy-efficient embedded interconnect technology of its kind."
Deemed the MicroPOD™, Avago developed it for IBM's next generation supercomputer, POWER7™. While it was designed for HPC server interconnects, it could be used for on-board or chip-to-chip interconnects as well. The devices use a newly designed miniature detachable connector from US CONEC called PRIZM™ LightTurn™. The system has separate transmitter and receiver modules that are connected through a 12-fiber ribbon. Each lane supports up to 12.5 Gbps. It uses 850nm VCSEL and PIN diode arrays. The embedded modules can be used for any board-level or I/O-level application by either using two PRIZM LightTurn connectors or one PRIZM LightTurn and one MPO.
While these modules are currently for the HPC market, Avago designed something very similar for Intel and its Light Peak interconnect system (see previous post for details) for what some are calling “optical USB.” MicroPOD is targeted at high-density environments so a natural extension of its market reach would be into switches and routers. The market for such devices probably will not become huge in the next few years, but it is exciting to see that companies in this space have started to spend R&D dollars again and that there are at least a few customers willing to employ the technology right out of the gate. Of course, it must be noted that this project was partially funded by DARPA.
But this technology MUST be too expensive for the typical piece of network equipment right? Not so, says Avago, because the manufacturing process is 100-percent automated and with Avago's vertical integration, the prices (at volume) may actually be able to rival those of today's transceivers. I’ll hold judgment until Avago proves it can win more than one big customer, however, I think MicroPOD holds the promise to change the paradigm for on-board, board-to-board and even network-element-to-network-element optical interconnects.
