INDUSTRY

Based on the Industry-Standard CXP Form Factor, Finisar's High-Performance Active Cable Enhances Computing Connectivity in High-Speed Applications

Finisar Corporation has introduced C.wire, a 150 gigabit per second (Gbps) optical link for storage, data center, and high-performance computing connectivity. Based on the CXP form factor, the C.wire active optical cable (AOC) utilizes fiber optic technology to transmit parallel high-speed data in 100+ Gbps applications such as InfiniBand, 100G Ethernet, and proprietary high-speed interconnections. Finisar will demonstrate this new active cable at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC'09) in Hamburg, Germany, June 22-24, 2009 at booth #612.

With the increase in I/O bandwidth required by next generation CPUs, protocols such as InfiniBand and Ethernet need very high speed connectivity solutions for next-generation data center architectures. Aggregation Switches, Stacked Switches and Meshed Network Topologies need to deploy cabling solutions which are beyond the bandwidth and distance limitations available in copper.

C.wire provides the smallest footprint of any cable solution available today for applications requiring data throughput of 100Gbps and beyond. It transmits parallel 12x12.5 Gbps data bi-directionally over a multimode fiber (MMF) ribbon cable. Its superior low-power, small bend radius and high-density (Gb/s per mm^3) make it the ideal connectivity solution for growing data centers and HPC clusters.

"Finisar's C.wire will drive data center connectivity to new levels," said Alan Benner, Senior Technical Staff Member at IBM Corporation and Chair of the ElectroMechanical Working Group for the InfiniBand Trade Association. "With InfiniBand QDR 40 Gbps server connectivity available today and 120 Gbps coming soon, we need solutions like Finisar's active optical cables to drive higher density switches at lower power."

"With C.wire you can now get connections above 100 Gbps anywhere in the datacenter without worrying about whether you need copper or optics," said Karen Liu, Vice President, Ovum RHK. "Aside from operation simplicity, Finisar's innovation addresses these increasingly urgent issues as datacenters grow in both size and speed: power consumption, density and reach."

"As evidenced in recent analyst reports by IGI and Lightcounting, Active Optical Cables are quickly becoming the next generation interconnects of choice for high-speed datacenter and HPC connectivity," said Jan Meise, director of strategic marketing at Finisar Corporation. "C.wire represents the third member of Finisar's cable family and is a clear demonstration of our commitment to providing breakthrough cable technology that will ensure 100G computing connectivity as early as 2010."

C.wire's product offerings include a 12x12.5 Gbps cable for proprietary interconnects and a 12x10 Gbps cable for InfiniBand 12xQDR and 100GbE applications. To request a sample or to find more information about Finisar's active optical cable product line, contact the company at #1-408-548-1000, send email to cables@finisar.com or visit www.finisar.com/cables. For more information about ISC'09, visit: www.supercomp.de.