Mellanox announces first 200 Gb/s silicon photonics devices
Mellanox Technologies, a supplier of high-performance, end-to-end intelligent interconnect solutions for data centre servers and storage systems, recently demonstrated its 50Gb/s silicon photonics optical modulators and detectors at the Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference in the US.
The company's distribution partner, Networks Unlimited, distributes Mellanox products in 23 African countries.
The demonstrated devices are the key component in 200 Gb/s and 400 Gb/s LinkX cables and transceivers, and this demonstration was an important milestone towards providing end-to-end solutions for HDR 200Gb/s InfiniBand and Ethernet interconnect infrastructure.
"Silicon photonics is the enabling technology for 200 Gb/s InfiniBand and Ethernet networks," said Amir Prescher, executive vice-president of business development and interconnect products at Mellanox. "The QSFP56 doubles the front panel density for next-generation switches; enables 200G copper DACs and 50 G breakout cables for adapters and inside-the-rack applications; and silicon photonics transceivers supports all data center reaches to 2km."
Mellanox plans to offer 50 Gb/s and 200 Gb/s Direct Attach Copper cables (DACs); copper splitter cables (QSFP56 to 4x SFP56); silicon photonics based AOCs for up to 200 m reach; and silicon photonics transceivers for a reach up to 2 km. Mellanox 200 Gb/s cables and transceivers will seamlessly support previous generations of 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s networks.
"Moving to 100 G network inside the data centre is becoming more and more of a reality in our region, and we can support this growth," adds Anton Jacobsz, managing director at Networks Unlimited.
Mellanox's extensive LinkX interconnect product family includes 10 Gb/s, 40 Gb/s, 25 Gb/s, 50 Gb/s and 100Gb/s copper cables, active optical cables and transceivers for both single mode fibre and multi-mode fibre applications. The newest LinkX additions, introduced at OFC 2016, are 25 Gb/s transceivers and Active Optical cables, and use the SFP28 form factor.
