IBM Implements 100G Optical Transceiver in Sub-100nm CMOS

IBM announced another significant advancement with is CMOS integrated nano-photonics technology. The company said its researchers for the first time have tested a fully integrated wavelength multiplexed silicon photonics chip, which will soon enable manufacturing of 100 Gbps optical transceivers. The design implements multiple optical components side-by-side with electrical circuits on a single silicon chip using sub-100nm CMOS technology.

“Making silicon photonics technology ready for widespread commercial use will help the semiconductor industry keep pace with ever-growing demands in computing power driven by Big Data and cloud services,” said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president and director of IBM Research. “Just as fiber optics revolutionized the telecommunications industry by speeding up the flow of data -- bringing enormous benefits to consumers -- we’re excited about the potential of replacing electric signals with pulses of light. This technology is designed to make future computing systems faster and more energy efficient, while enabling customers to capture insights from Big Data in real time.”

IBM's new 100G transceiver has a range of up to 2 kilometers and uses four laser at different wavelenghts, each operating as an independent 25 Gbps optical channel. Within a full transceiver design, these four channels can be wavelength multiplexed on-chip to provide 100 Gbps aggregate bandwidth over a duplex single-mode fiber, thus minimizing the cost of the installed fiber plant within the data center.

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/46839.wss

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100G and Beyond - @Huawei Comments at #OFC2015

What changes will we see as network transport evolves to 100G and beyond? Peter Ashwood-Smith, Technical VP of Optical Product Line at Huawei, breaks it down into a discussion of the control layer and the physical interface.  He sees 100G as the "workhorse" of optical transport for the next 3-5 years. We'll see improvements in density and the adoption on pluggable formats in 100G interfaces. Another factor for 100G is silicon photonics.

See video:  https://youtu.be/1xLUwwwhwiA

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Luxtera Debuts 100G QSFP28 Module and Silicon Photonics Chipset

At this week's #OFC2015 in Los Angeles, Luxtera confirmed commercial availability of its 100G-PSM4 compliant chipset and QSFP optical module. The company said its low cost single mode products  make it well positioned for an industry-shift from copper and legacy multimode fiber to single mode fiber at volume scale.

LUX42604 Key Features

• 100Gb optical transceiver
• QSFP28 compliant module form-factor
• Four 4 x 26 Gbps independently operating channels, full-duplex operation
• Multirate: 1 – 25.78 Gbps (per channel)
• FEC not required for error free operation but also supports Clause 74 and 91 FEC
• 1310nm PSM4 MSA compliant – as described by www.psm4.org.
• Proven Light Source and Packaging Technology
• Extended Reach Up to 2000 Meters
• Less than 3.5W worst case power

“In 2015, hyperscale data centers are undergoing a tectonic shift as the industry moves to 100Gb, and single mode photonics replace copper to become the mainstream interconnect. Luxtera is at the forefront of this transition with the only optical transceiver technology that can deliver 100Gb speeds with up to 2km of reach at the aggressive cost points needed for these high volume deployments. Today we are introducing our first Hybrid Silicon Photonics architecture products including the industry’s first 1310nm 100G-PSM4 MSA compliant QSFP28+ pluggable module and a fully integrated SiP PSM4 chipset,” said Greg Young, President and CEO of Luxtera.  “Luxtera pioneered the field of Silicon Photonics starting in 2001 and has been in continuous production since the original introduction of 40Gb SiP AOCs in 2008. With these new products we are addressing connectivity needs of hyperscale/cloud and enterprise datacenters with standard compliant products. We look forward to moving further into these core markets by delivering additional high performance single mode fiber solutions."

http://www.luxtera.com

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Mellanox Intros Next Gen 100 Gbps Silicon Photonics Transceivers

Mellanox Technologies introduced three new LinkX 100 Gb/s solutions that support the high-density, low-power, QSFP28 connector-based Switch-IB switch platform.

The Switch-IB 36-port 100Gb/s InfiniBand switch delivers 7.2Tb/s of aggregate throughput in a 1U, making it the world’s highest performance, ultra-dense end-to-end platform. Mellanox said the robustness and density of standard QSFP connectors and cables enables 100Gb/s networks to be as easy to deploy as 10Gb/s.

Some highlights from #OFC2015

• 100Gb/s Silicon Photonics Transceivers: 100Gb/s 1550nm Parallel Single Mode transceiver in the QSFP28 form factor, capable of reaches up to 2km.
• 100Gb/s VCSEL Transceivers: 100G VCSEL transceiver in the QSFP28 form factor with reaches of 100m over multi-mode fiber (MMF).
• 100Gb/s Splitters to connect 100G ports to 25G and 50G ports: new copper splitter breakout cables efficiently interconnect 100Gb/s QSFP28 switch ports to a new generation of high performance servers and storage appliances with 25G and 50G ports. Using zero power, they are the low-power, green solution for connectivity inside the rack.

At #OFC2015, Mellanox is also showing its ConnectX-4 100Gb/s interconnect adapters which deliver 10, 20, 25, 40, 50, 56 and 100Gb/s throughput supporting both the InfiniBand and the Ethernet standard protocols.

http://www.mellanox.com

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OpenOptics MSA Consortium Releases WDM Spec for DCI

The OpenOptics MSA Consortium has published the first foundational Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) specification for an interoperable 100G WDM standard for 2 kilometer reach, addressing data center interconnect (DCI) requirements.

RANOVUS said this new WDM specification brings together 1550nm WDM laser and silicon photonics for QSFP and optical engine based solutions, enabling lowest-cost, highest density, and highest bandwidth with single mode fiber pair connectivity, to enable data centers to use up to 32 or more channels per fiber strand.

“Our OpenOptics MSA collaboration with industry leaders has resulted in the definition of a foundational WDM specification for data center network connectivity, and having terabit scalability on a single mode fiber pair infrastructure,” said Saeid Aramideh, chief marketing and sales officer for RANOVUS.  “The availability of this specification is a major milestone for our industry which we believe will not only accelerate the adoption of silicon-photonics based WDM solutions for the data center market, but also allow for a scalable terabit infrastructure for next generation datacenter architectures.”
 
“Previously, there was no standard for anything beyond 100Gbs,” said Gilad Shainer, vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “Now, the industry will have an architecture standard that scales to a terabit and beyond on existing fiber, substantially reduces the cost of hyperscale data center networks.”

http://www.ranovus.com

Earlier this month, the OpenOptics Multi-Source Agreement group said it plans to contribute its developed wavelength specifications to the Open Compute Project (OCP). The new specification enables data to be streamed at terabits per second over a single fiber.

The founders and supporters for the OpenOptics MSA for Highly Scalable Interconnect Solutions include Mellanox Technologies, RANOVUS, Ciena, Oracle, Vertilas, and Ghiasi Quantum. The MSA combines 1550 nm WDM laser and silicon photonics for optical networking solutions enabling the lowest cost, highest density, and highest bandwidth single mode fiber (SMF) connectivity, significantly improving terabit-scale data center infrastructure ROI.

http://www.openopticsmsa.org/

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MACOM Acquires BinOptics for Indium Phosphide Lasers

M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings (MACOM) agreed to acquire BinOptics Corporation, a merchant provider of Indium Phosphide lasers, for $230 million in cash.

BinOptics' highly differentiated edge-emitting and surface-emitting Fabry Perot and DFB lasers are used in applications such as data centers, mobile backhaul, silicon photonics and access. The company has developed proprietary Etched Facet Technology (EFT) for lasers that enable compelling wafer-scale economics in both device manufacturing and testing. The company is based in Ithaca, New York.

MACOM is a leading supplier of high performance RF, microwave, and millimeter wave products.

http://www.macom.com/
http://www.binoptics.com/

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NeoPhotonics Acquires EMCORE’s Narrow Linewidth Tunable Lasers

NeoPhotonics agreed to acquire EMCORE Corporation's tunable laser and transceiver product lines for approximately $17.5 million, which consists of $15.0 million and a working capital and inventory adjustment of approximately $2.5 million.  The deal includes production and development fixed assets, inventory and intellectual property for the ECL-based Integrable Tunable Laser Assembly (ITLA), micro-ITLA, Tunable XFP transceiver, tunable optical sub-assemblies and Integrated Coherent Transmitter (ICT) products for 10, 40, 100 and 400G telecommunications networks.

NeoPhotonics said it intends to add the EMCORE tunable lasers to its current product line and to continue to serve EMCORE’s current customers without interruption. EMCORE has supported these products from its facility in Newark, California and NeoPhotonics expects to integrate this business into in its existing Silicon Valley facilities. EMCORE’s revenue for this product line has been approximately $9 million per quarter. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to NeoPhotonics by the second quarter of 2015.

“EMCORE’s narrow linewidth tunable laser product line is highly complementary to our broad existing portfolio of optical components for 100 Gigabits per second coherent transport systems, and this acquisition significantly expands our footprint in this rapidly growing segment,” said Tim Jenks, Chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. “EMCORE’s External Cavity Laser tunable laser has the narrowest linewidth in the industry, which we believe will become increasingly important for advanced modulation schemes at 400G and beyond. Combining this business into NeoPhotonics will allow us to provide customers with a full product suite that serves the entire coherent market,” continued Mr. Jenks.

http://www.neophotonics.com/news/newsneo_1980621.aspx

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Canadian Researchers Develop Photon Pair Source

An international team of researchers led by professor Roberto Morandotti of INRS-EMT in Canada announced a new method to achieve a different type of photon pair source that fits into a computer chip. To generate the cross-polarized photons, Caspani and colleagues used two different laser beams at different wavelengths —one vertically polarized and another horizontally polarized.

The researchers said their innovation could form the core of the next-generation of quantum optical communication and computing technology.

The research will be presented at The Optical Society's (OSA) 98th Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics, being held Oct. 19-23 in Tucson, Arizona, USA.

“While several efforts have been devoted to develop on-chip sources of polarization-entangled photons, the process typically used to generate these photons only allows the generation of photons with the same polarization as the laser beam used to pump the device — either both horizontal or vertical — after which entanglement can be achieved by accurately mixing these states. Now, we have found a way to directly generate cross-polarized photon pairs,” says Lucia Caspani, a postdoctoral fellow at INRS-EMT and co-author of the Frontiers in Optics paper.

http://www.frontiersinoptics.com/home/?r=true
http://www.osa.org/en-us/about_osa/newsroom/news_releases/2014/a_new_approach_to_on-chip_quantum_computing/

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Compass-EOS Introduces SDN Forwarding Plane

Compass-EOS introduces its SDN Forwarding Plane, a new networking element that aims to replace expensive and complex routers used in service provider networks.

The Compass-EOS said key attributes of its SDN Forwarding Plane include:

• A scalable, high-capacity, low-latency, programmable secure packet forwarding  platform
• Support for SDN/NFV-based open-standard protocol
• The Compass-EOS AnyFLOW Architecture, a unique, hybrid SDN architecture that combines network topology resolution and packet forwarding on multiple levels
• Compass-EOS icPhotonics technology for scalability and low-latency

Compass-EOS has also joined the Open Daylight open-source SDN community and is planning to contribute code and expertise for WAN-centric SDN applications.

Compass-EOS also disclosed a new chip on its product roadmap that will enable its routers and SDN Forwarding Plane solution to grow from its current total capacity of 1.34 Terabits/sec to higher than 10 Terabits/sec.

“With the world’s first commercial technology combining high-capacity inter-chip optical interconnect and digital processing in the same silicon chip, Compass-EOS’ icPhotonics™ technology gives us the unique opportunity to completely transform the  information and communications technology industry as we know it, unleashing a new generation of devices and innovation that disrupts the current network equipment paradigm," said Matt Bross, Compass-EOS Chairman and CEO.

“This gives birth to a new network element – an SDN Forwarding Plane that takes its instructions from processes in the cloud and defines in detail what each flow in the plane is doing in a packet-by-packet basis,” Bross continued. “This type of technology capability simply doesn’t exist in legacy platforms. The SDN Forwarding Plane is more powerful yet less complex and power hungry. More importantly, it can also incrementally scale through the simple addition of more devices, just like servers are used to scale data centers today.”

http://compass-eos.com/

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Google Collaborates with UCSB on Quantum Processors

Google is collaborating with the University of California Santa Barbara to design and build new quantum information processors based on superconducting electronics.

The research brings together Google's Quantum Artificial Intelligence team with John Martinis and his team at UC Santa Barbara.

The team plans to test new designs for quantum optimization and inference processors based on recent theoretical insights as well as learnings from the D-Wave quantum annealing architecture.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QuantumAILab/posts

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IBM Kicks off $3 Billion Silicon Research Initiative

IBM announced a $3 billion research initiative that aims to advance silicon technologies to the 7nm threshold or below.  Over the next 5 years, IBM will conduct two broad research and early stage development programs.

The first is aimed at so-called “7 nanometer and beyond” silicon technology and the second is focused on developing alternative technologies for post-silicon era chips using entirely different approaches.

IBM said its research teams will be able to leverage work it already has underway in area such as carbon nanoelectronics, silicon photonics, new memory technologies, and architectures that support quantum and cognitive computing.

"The question is not if we will introduce 7 nanometer technology into manufacturing, but rather how, when, and at what cost?" said John Kelly, senior vice president, IBM Research. "IBM engineers and scientists, along with our partners, are well suited for this challenge and are already working on the materials science and device engineering required to meet the demands of the emerging system requirements for cloud, big data, and cognitive systems. This new investment will ensure that we produce the necessary innovations to meet these challenges."

https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/44357.wss

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Intel Unveils Knights Landing Processor and Omni Scale I/O Fabric

Intel announced microarchitecture and memory details of its next-generation Intel Xeon Phi processor (code-named Knights Landing) and an end-to-end interconnect fabric optimized for fast data transfers, both aimed at powering High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems.

Knights Landing, which is expected to debut in the second half of 2015, will include up to16GB high-bandwidth, on-package memory at launch – designed in partnership with Micron – to deliver five times better bandwidth compared to DDR4 memory, five times better energy efficiency and three times more density than current GDDR-based memory. Knights Landing will be available in a PCIe-based card option, or mounted directly on the motherboard socket to remove the bandwidth bottlenecks of data transfer over PCIe, common in GPU and accelerator solutions.

Powered by more than 60 HPC-enhanced Silvermont architecture-based cores, Knights Landing is expected to deliver more than 3 TFLOPS of double-precision performance and three times the single-threaded performance compared with the current generation.

Intel's new Omni Scale fabric, which is built upon a combination of enhanced acquired IP from Cray and QLogic along with tis own in-house innovations, addresses the I/O requirements of the HPC sector.  Intel Omni Scale Fabric is an end-to-end I/O solution encompassing adapters, edge switches, director switch systems, cables and management software. Intel intends to replace traditional electrical transceivers in the director switches with silicon photonics, enabling increased port density, simplified cabling and reduced costs. Intel Silicon Photonics-based cabling and transceiver solutions may also be used with Intel Omni Scale-based processors, adapter cards and edge switches.

Intel noted continued market gains in powering the HPC sector.  The company said its current generation of Xeon processors and Xeon Phi coprocessors powers the top-rated system in the world – the 35 PFLOPS "Milky Way 2" in China, and its designs account for 85 percent of all supercomputers on the 43rd edition of the TOP500 list.

http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2014/06/23/intel-re-architects-the-fundamental-building-block-for-high-performance-computing

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NTT Develops Nanowire and Photonic Crystal on a Silicon Chip

Researchers at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) have developed a novel method to create an optical nanocavity  at an arbitrary place on a silicon chip by placing a compound semiconductor nanowire on a silicon photonic crystal.

NTT sais a large number of nanophotonic devices could be integrated on a silicon chip using this methos, paving the way for dense optical networks on a processor chip.

NTT Nanophotonics Center (NPC) is located in Atsugi, Japan.

The researchers plan to extend this approach to various nanowires with specific functions, such as optical gain or optical nonlinearity, so as to realize functional photonic devices, such as lasers and optical switches, on a silicon chip.

http://www.ntt.co.jp

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Intel: From Silicon to Platforms

"If it computes, it does it best with Intel" -- this statement underscores Intel's mission, said company CEO Brian Krzanich, speaking at the Intel Investor's Day conference in Santa Clara, California. Intel is dedicated to "a new pragmatism" that will make the company much more market driven, said Krzanich, with a the goal of capturing significant inroads in the data center and mobile computing. Among the changes to the way the company does business is that decision to open its foundry to any company able to utilize its silicon and the decision to create platforms for the data center, not just server and switching silicon.

Some highlights taken from half-dozen executive presentations (now available on the company's website).

Data Center

• Intel sees a 15% CAGR for data center products through 2016.
• Intel's data center business spans Enterprise, Telco, HPC, Work stations and Cloud.  The company will move from delivering just silicon to complete solutions for each of these segments.
• Intel believes the Telco market will transition to common server platforms for many workloads, including signal processing at the edge, control plane processing, application processing and data plane processing.  This is a major transition and will help offset Service Provider CAPEX/OPEX.
• AT&T's Supplier Domain 2.0 program is an example of the move to open software and hardware solutions.
• The move to SDN and NFV will also drive the move to Intel architectures. Over 15 major telcos worldwide are in the process of qualifying new systems based on Intel systems.
• Proprietary network appliances are being virtualized and migrated on open servers based on Intel.
• Intel currently estimates that it has about 5% of the overall network equipment compute market, compared with 94% of the enterprise server compute market.  The company believes the performance gains of its Xeon processors will enable it to challenge the ASIC-based systems currently used in many networking platforms.
• Intel estimates that every 400 new Connected Devices sold leads to the sale of 1 new server. Every new 20 Digital Signs leads to 1 new server.
• Internet of Things will drive faster change: a metro area smart traffic deployment will require 30K cameras, 10K gates, 2.5K servers, 650 network switches, 250 storage systems -- based on a real project in China.
• 6 of 7 top data center customers bought “higher bin” CPUs vs. prior year.
• Intel delivers unique server processors for eBay (liquid cooled), Facebook (cold storage server), and Nuance (optimized for voice processing)
• Intel is delivering its new open rack-scale architecture to the Open Compute project and a similar "Scorpion" initiative in China.
• In terms of connecting systems in a rack, copper will be challenged >25Gbps.
• Current optical interconnect products are challenged >100m, >25Gbps.
• Intel's Silicon Photonics has demonstrated 800m reach at 25Gbps.  This will enter production in Q1 2014.
• Intel currently holds No.1 market share in enterprise SSDs.  Upcoming technologies will redefine the boundary between memory and storage.

Mobility and PC

• About 1.5 billion smartphones and tablets will ship in 2014 (overall market).
• Intel believes the PC market is stabilizing, although still declining at single digit rates.
• In 2014 aims for 40 million tablets sold -- a 4X gain over expected 2013 Intel tablet shipments.
• Intel seeks to change the "PC experience" by pushing 2-in-1 convertible and detachable PC/Tablet devices, with prices under $300.
• Look for Intel-powered tablets on the market for under $100.
• The first LTE chipset (XMM7160) is shipping and the LTE-Advanced chipset (XMM7260) will be out next year.
• The forthcoming Broxton chip (next gen Atom) will offer a unique design that will allow it to be quickly adapted for specialized devices. Target date is mid-2015.
• A new SoFIA chipset will provide integrated global LTE multi-comm connectivity with Intel Atom inside.  Initially it will be built in an external foundry for market pragmatics, but brought back inside with a move to 14nm.
• Intel believes "perceptual computing" will be a big trend - using voice and motion sensors to make computing a 3D experience.

Manufacturing

• Intel's 10nm process technology will be ready in 2015.
• Opening the foundry means focusing on a much wider range of customers.
• Initial foundry customers include achronix, Altera, Microsemi, Netronome and Tabula.

Archived materials are here:
http://intelstudios.edgesuite.net/im/2013/live_im.html

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Mellanox to Acquire Kotura for Silicon Photonic Interconnects

Mellanox Technologies agreed to acquire privately held Kotura, a developer of advanced silicon photonics optical interconnect technology, for a total cash purchase price of approximately $82 million. Both the Mellanox and Kotura boards of directors have approved the deal.

Kotura holds over 120 granted or pending patents in CMOS photonics and packaging design.  The company has made a number of ground breaking innovations in optical interconnects by integrating multiple high speed active and passive optical functions onto a silicon chip. The company is based in Monterey Park, California.

Mellanox said the acquisition enhances its ability to deliver cost-effective, high-speed networks with next generation optical connectivity for servers and storage systems.

Mellanox expects to establish its first R&D center in the United States at Kotura’s current location. Further, Mellanox intends to retain Kotura’s existing product lines to ensure continuity for customers and partners.

“Operating networks at 100 Gigabit per second rates and higher requires careful integration between all parts of the network. We believe that silicon photonics is an important component in the development of 100 Gigabit InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions, and that owning and controlling the technology will allow us to develop the best, most reliable solution for our customers,” said Eyal Waldman, president, CEO and chairman of Mellanox Technologies.

http://www.mellanox.com/page/press_release_item?id=1024

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Inphi Demos 2.4 Tbps Line Card Tech -- QSFP28

Inphi is demoing interoperability of its second generation Tri-Rate PHY/SerDes Gearbox (GB) ICs with Luxtera and TE Connectivity (TE) optical modules at this week's Interop in Las Vegas.

Inphi is showcasing its new Tri-Rate IN112510-LD 100G GB interoperating with a Silicon Photonics QSFP28 module from Luxtera, as well as VCSEL based QSFP28 from TE to highlight the availability of the QSFP28 form factor using different optics technologies. The new GB ICs with Inphi's Tri-Rate foundation enables seamless support of 10G, 40G and 100G Ethernet and OTN on a single line card.

"Our next-generation Tri-Rate PHY/SerDes GB ICs interoperating with industry leading QSFP28 technology from Luxtera and TE demonstrates that the technology of the future is now available for designers to successfully build ultra-high density line cards for hyper scale data center systems," said Siddharth Sheth, vice president of marketing for Inphi's high-speed connectivity products. "As an agnostic vendor to the type of technology used in QSFP28 modules, Inphi continues to work with a broad ecosystem of partners using Silicon Photonics, VCSEL or other optics and laser sources to further the deployment of 100G."

Luxtera is also showing its 100G Silicon Photonics chipset packaged in a QSFP28. 

http://www.inphi.com

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NTT Com Selects Compass-EOS' Silicon-Photonic Routers

NTT Communications has selected Compass-EOS' new r10004 core-grade modular routers for use in its high-capacity transpacific network. The Compass-EOS routers are the world’s first direct silicon-to-photonics-based routers.

“We chose Compass-EOS routers to be used at the termination points of our transpacific high-capacity network, providing a vital link between North America and APAC,” said Dorian Kim, Vice President of IP Engineering at NTT Communications. “The high bandwidth and low power consumption, together with the modularity of the Compass-EOS router family fit well with our future vision and plans.”

“We are thrilled to have NTT Communications among the first production users of our r10004 routers,” said Gadi Bahat, CEO of Compass-EOS. “We look forward to working with them on their implementation in building simple, innovative networks that deliver better services to their customers.”

http://compass-eos.com/

Last month, Compass-EOS unveiled its radical silicon-to-photonics router that essentially leverages an on-chip optical mesh and electronics to route high-densities of 100GbE and 10GbE.

The company's silicon-to-photonics implementation, which it calls icPhotonics, simplifies router design by bringing the entire backplane on-chip, thereby enabling petabit-class scalability, significantly smaller footprint and power consumption, and easier implementation of software-defined networking capabilities.  The on–chip optical integration ensures QoS routing at high utilization rates and congestion-free multicast packet handling. Compass-EOS said it is also able to ensure maximum router protection from DDoS attacks at maximum capacity.

The company's first product, r10004, is a carrier-grade, modular platform offering 800 Gbps Capacity in a 6U enclosure.  It offers 2 x 100G ports or 20 x 10G ports with full Layer 3 routing functionality for core, peering or aggregation deployments.

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Fujikura Develops 40-60 Gbps Silicon Photonics Modulator

Fujikura Ltd. announced the world's first 40-60 Gbps silicon photonics modulator in both Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK) and Differential QPSK (DQPSK) versions.

The modulator comprises two silicon phase-shifters that are integrated in a nested Mach-Zehnder configuration. The company optimized electrode arrangements and doping profiles in the phase-shifters, which materializes high-speed performance of >40 Gbps DQPSK and >60Gbps QPSK modulation at less than 10dB fiber-to-fiber loss. Moreover, dispersion tolerance of more than +/-80 ps/nm is recorded at the 44.6 Gbps DQPSK transmission.

http://www.fujikura.co.jp/eng/newsrelease/2037592_3501.html

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OneChip Photonics Intros 100G PIC in Indium Phosphide

OneChip Photonics introduced a Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC)-based 100 Gbps device that monolithically integrates all of the optical functions required for an optical transceiver into a single Indium Phosphide (InP)-based chip. All of the active components (Distributed Feedback “DFB” laser, Electro-Absorption Modulator “EAM,” and Waveguide Photodetector “WPD”) and passive components (Wavelength Division Multiplexing “WDM” combiner, splitter and Spot-Size Converter “SSC”) of the chip are, uniquely, integrated in one epitaxial growth step – without re-growth or post-growth modification of the epitaxial material.

The company said its Multi-Guide Vertical Integration (MGVI)-based PICs will enable transceiver manufacturers to produce high-speed, low-power and small-size modules for Data Center Interconnect (DCI) applications.

The MGVI platform in Indium Phosphide is based on the same process that inherently produces the best and fastest Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs) used in Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs). As such, the company also will be able to integrate electronics, such as Transimpedance Amplifiers (TIAs) and modulator drivers, within a commercially available and volume-scalable process. The silicon photonics dream of leveraging high-volume electronic chip production, while combining photonics and electronics onto the same substrate, is ironically best realized in Indium Phosphide.

http://www.onechipphotonics.com

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Compass-EOS Unveils Silicon-to-Photonics Router

Compass-EOS, a start-up based in Israel, unveiled its radical silicon-to-photonics router that essentially leverages an on-chip optical mesh and electronics to route high-densities of 100GbE and 10GbE.

The company's silicon-to-photonics implementation, which it calls icPhotonics, simplifies router design by bringing the entire backplane on-chip, thereby enabling petabit-class scalability, significantly smaller footprint and power consumption, and easier implementation of software-defined networking capabilities.  The on–chip optical integration ensures QoS routing at high utilization rates and congestion-free multicast packet handling. Compass-EOS said it is also able to ensure maximum router protection from DDoS attacks at maximum capacity.

The company's first product, r10004, is a carrier-grade, modular platform offering 800 Gbps Capacity in a 6U enclosure.  It offers 2 x 100G ports or 20 x 10G ports with full Layer 3 routing functionality for core, peering or aggregation deployments. The r10004 router has been shipping since late 2012 and is currently deployed by several top-tier carriers, including a Japan-based cable provider.

Compass-EOS was founded in 2006 by Michael Laor, who previously was a Director of Engineering and Architecture of Cisco Systems, and Dr. Michael Mesh, who had been a co-founder and CTO of PacketLight Networks.

Investors in Compass-EOS is backed by Comcast Ventures, T-Ventures, Cisco Systems, Pitango Venture Capital, Benchmark Capital, Northbridge Venture Partners and Crescent Point.  The company has raised over $120 million to date.

“A major concern for service providers today is how to scale their networks while simplifying operations and improving utilization. We set out to address that concern by building a new breed of routers,” said Gadi Bahat, CEO of Compass-EOS. “Our revolutionary router design built on icPhotonics simplifies the network, brings about cost savings, moves service providers toward SDN and network

http://compass-eos.com

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