News

19 November 2009

 

Luxtera launches low-power version of 40G active optical cable

Fabless CMOS silicon photonics firm Luxtera Inc of Carlsbad, CA, USA is demonstrating its new LUX5010A low-power version of its Blazar 40G active optical cable (AOC) at this week’s Supercomputing 2009 event (SC09) in Portland, OR, where Blazar was also selected to serve as the cabling solution backbone for SCinet, the world’s fastest network. Luxtera's original Blazar active optical cable (AOC) product line was launched in August 2007.

Powering SCinet at SC09 demonstrates low-power Blazar’s extended reach and low power by connecting exhibitors through the InfiniBand network to enable multiple hig-performance computing (HPC) demonstrations during the conference.

It is claimed that the new Blazar uses over 30% less energy than competing products, improving overall data-center power consumption and thermal efficiency. The low-power Blazar also incorporates intrusion detection and protection (IDP) features, which provide data centers with the security needed to maintain data integrity.

Low-power Blazar transceivers operate at less than 20mW/Gbps, which is well below the power consumption of traditional multi-mode VCSEL optics, claims Luxtera, significantly reducing heat dissipation, operating expenses and the carbon footprint of data centers. By combining CMOS photonics technology and single-mode fiber, low-power Blazar maintains a low price point while supporting long-reach connectivity from 1m to up to more than 4000m. High reliability and design flexibility also make the low-power AOC suitable as an interconnect for HPC clusters and high-density applications such as blade servers.

“Our highly integrated 40Gbps switch systems and switch blades are providing data centers with the computing power and density required for HPC and scaled data-center applications, but with density come distance, power consumption and thermal design challenges,” says Shai Rephaeli, VP of product engineering at Mellanox Technologies of Sunnyvale, CA USA and Yokneam, Israel, which supplies end-to-end connectivity solutions for servers and storage. “Low-power optical solutions, such as Luxtera’s low power Blazar, solve these challenges by minimizing power consumption while providing benefits in distance, weight and flexibility.”

With the addition of patent-pending IDP features, low-power Blazar is the first secure optical cable available for HPC deployments, claims Luxtera. To deliver this feature, the unique optoelectronic integration capabilities of silicon photonics enables the use of embedded germanium photodetectors with associated receiver logic to detect cable intrusion attempts. Low-power Blazar also uses high-performance single-mode, bend-insensitive fiber to achieve a fiber bend radius of 5mm with no light escaping, reducing the possibility of cable intrusions. The new Blazar is also tested and qualified for interoperability with the first IPD-feature enabled switch, Voltaire's quad-data-rate (QDR) InfiniBand Grid Director and Unified Fabric Manager software. Luxtera and Voltaire are demonstrating this feature at SC09.

“When it comes to sensitive information and trade secrets, security breaches are a major concern for data centers,” says Asaf Somekh, Voltaire’s VP of marketing. “Government research facilities, the financial industry and corporations look to leaders in HPC systems to support their infrastructure and maintain information security. With our Grid Director switches and Unified Fabric Manager software we can take advantage of low-power Blazar's unique IDP features to be the first company to deliver a secure, reliable, as well as energy-efficient InfiniBand solution for data centers,” he claims.

“The addition of IDP features to our products emphasizes the advantages of silicon photonics optoelectronic integration and its ability to add innovative features without adding cost,” says VP of marketing Marek Tlalka. “Luxtera will continue to enhance our silicon photonics technology platform to further reduce interconnect power consumption and expand features.”

See related item:

Luxtera launches first single-chip transceiver for motherboard deployment

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