Luxtera and Siemon Collaborate to Deliver Active Optical Cabling for High Performance Data Centers

Tuesday, Feb 02, 2010

Luxtera, the worldwide leader in Silicon CMOS Photonics, today announced its collaboration with Siemon, a leading global manufacturer of IT cabling infrastructure systems. Based on Luxtera’s 40Gbp/s single-mode fiber transceivers, Siemon introduces its Moray™ Active Optical Cabling (AOC) product family. Siemon’s Moray™ AOC launch expands Siemon’s extensive portfolio of copper and fiber data center solutions. By collaborating with Luxtera, Siemon enables its customers to work with a single data center solutions provider to achieve high performance and extended reach optical interconnect at lower cost than legacy multimode fiber.

“Using silicon photonics transceiver technology along with single-mode fiber transmission media, Siemon is able to offer a cost-effective cable that delivers high performance connectivity as well as increased reliability and extended distance”

Siemon selected Luxtera for its ability to utilize Silicon CMOS Photonics technology and high performance, low cost single-mode fiber. The CMOS Photonics utilize an integrated opto-electronic chip with a directly attached fiber and a micro-packaged laser. This “Fiber-to-the-Chip” technology enables Siemon’s Moray™ active optical cabling to break the cost barriers and distance restrictions associated with existing vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) and multi-mode fiber solutions. Unlike traditional optics that utilize VCSELs and multi-mode fiber for short connections, Luxtera’s Silicon CMOS Photonics-based single chip transceivers support any distance from one meter to 4,000 meters for inter- and intra-building connections while decreasing the number of components in the AOC and improving its reliability.

“By collaborating with Siemon, we can deliver to customers a complete data center infrastructure that includes our high performance, low cost transceiver technology,” said Marek Tlalka, vice president of marketing for Luxtera. “Using silicon photonics transceiver technology along with single-mode fiber transmission media, Siemon is able to offer a cost-effective cable that delivers high performance connectivity as well as increased reliability and extended distance”.

“Luxtera has proven to be a forward thinking company, particularly with its utilization of Silicon CMOS Photonics technology and single-mode fiber,” said Ed Cady, business development manager for Siemon. “Luxtera’s technology made it easy to seamlessly add value to our product portfolio of data center infrastructure solutions.”

Siemon’s first AOC offering is four lane QSFP 40G active optical cabling family that supports Ethernet Switch, FibreChannel SAN Storage, InfiniBand Server systems and several other IO interface links between various blades, boxes, racks, containers and buildings.

“We are excited to be working with Luxtera to co-develop and manufacture a growing family of single-mode AOC’s and related optical products,” added Cady. “We look forward to continuing our relationship with Luxtera and advancing the deployment of single-mode active optical interconnects within various infrastructures.”

Siemon will showcase its product portfolio, including Moray™ AOC at this year’s DesignCon in Santa Clara during February 1-4, booth number 620.

About Luxtera:

Luxtera, Inc. is the world leader in Silicon CMOS Photonics. It is the first company to overcome the complex technical obstacles involved with integrating high performance optics directly with silicon electronics on a mainstream CMOS chip, bringing direct “fiber to the chip” connectivity to market. With its award-winning Blazar active optical cable and optics on motherboard OptoPHY transceiver family Luxtera is breaking cost barriers associated with traditional multimode optics and offers a roadmap to high performance optical connectivity and copper cost points. Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, Luxtera is a fabless semiconductor company that was founded in 2001 by a team of industry-renowned researchers and technology managers drawn from the communications and semiconductor industries. Luxtera has received funding from leading venture capitalists including August Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Sevin Rosen Funds and Lux Capital. More information can be found on the company's web site: www.luxtera.com.

About Siemon:

Established in 1903, Siemon (www.siemon.com) is a global industry leader in the development and manufacture of high quality, high-performance network cabling solutions. Siemon’s Interconnect Solutions business unit (SIS) specializes in the development of high-speed interconnects. Headquartered in Watertown, Connecticut, USA, Siemon operates directly in over 30 countries and, through its channels, services customers in over 100 countries. Siemon offers a comprehensive suite of copper and optical fiber cabling systems. With over 400 patents, Siemon Labs invests heavily in R&D and is actively involved with numerous industry standards organizations around the world.

 

Source: Business Wire