At the recent OFC 2014, Molex unveiled plans for its QuatroScale series, a planned portfolio of products based on 28-Gbps silicon photonics technology.
The product series will include offerings to support 100G, 200G, and 400G requirements to meet market demand for large and distributed HPC data centers. Two of the three initial products in the line will be active optical cables (AOCs). The new products will leverage the silicon photonics CMOS technology the company has used since it acquired the active optical cable product line of Luxtera in 2011.
“Market indications are that the average data center interconnect in the U.S. is now over 130 meters in length, operating with 25-Gbps multimode VCSEL solutions which target a reach of only 100 meters,” comments Brent Hatfield, product manager for active optics at Molex. “Data center architects and OEM providers are discovering that silicon photonics-based optics bring significant advantages in terms of longer reach, with exceptionally low power consumption.”
More news: CDFP MSA selects Molex's zCD AOC interface for 400G hot pluggable modules
The first members of the QuatroScale silicon photonics optical products will begin sampling this summer, including the: 100 Gbps QSFP28 AOCs; 200 Gbps mid-board optical modules (available in 200 Gbps or 2x 100 Gbps port products); and 400 Gbps CDFP MSA AOCs.
Molex claims its silicon photonics technology achieves the longest reach and lowest bit error rate (BER), coupled with the highest reliability, of any 28 Gbps product on the market. For example, the QuatroScale 100 Gbps zQSFP+ AOC and on-board module run at a low 1.5W per 100 Gbps, but can go up to 4 km of distance. Further, according to the company, the low power QuatroScale AOCs deliver an achievable 1e-18 BER, with over three billion device hours accumulated without an in module failure. Finally, the compact form factor QuatroScale zCD AOCs reportedly deliver 16 bi-directional channels operating at 28 Gbps, with data rates scalable up to 400 Gbps bandwidth.
“The added economic value of the soon-to-be-released modular QuatroScale solutions, combined with the lowest cost singlemode structured cabling, translates into Molex providing customers with the most economical choice in silicon photonics solutions for next-generation data centers,” Hatfield concludes.
Related story: TE's Coolbit active optics to drive 100G, 300G, 400G fiber connectivity