At Supercomputing 2012 (SC12) in Salt Lake City (12-15 November), Vitesse Semiconductor Corp of Camarillo, CA, USA (which designs ICs for carrier and enterprise networks) and Avago Technologies Ltd of San Jose, CA, USA and Singapore (a supplier of III-V-based analog interface components) have announced availability of what is claimed to be the industry’s first CXP host joint reference design delivering 100G/120G connectivity for high-speed routers, enterprise data centers and high-performance cloud computing applications. Based on Vitesse’s VSC7227 12-channel signal conditioner and Avago’s AFBR-83PDZ 12-channel, pluggable, parallel, fiber-optic 100G CXP transceiver module, the joint reference design enables users to leverage Vitesse and Avago interoperability and expedite time-to-market with solutions for 100G/120G connectivity.
, mobile networking and video, remote storage and other bandwidth-intensive services is driving demand for high-density 100G/120G connectivity, say the firms. Recent surveys show that network bandwidth demand is one of the most critical issues facing data centers, driven by increases in virtualization, cloud computing, big data, and convergence. To meet these needs, both carrier and equipment providers are upgrading existing systems with higher-density 10G ports that are expected to grow 68% in 2012 alone, according to market research firm Infonetics. The reference design supports both these higher-density 10G ports, along with the migration to true 100G links and beyond.
“The Vitesse reference design demonstrates the combined superior performance of the Avago CXP transceivers with the Vitesse signal conditioning ICs,” says Sharon Hall, Avago’s product manager for parallel fiber-optic products. “With this combined solution, system designers can design 100G/120G optically connected systems with confidence and improved signal integrity,” she adds. “This reference design gives our customers a proven way to solve higher-bandwidth demands in optical networks,” says Vitesse product marketing manager Gary Paules.
Specific devices on the reference design include:
Avago’s AFBR-83PDZ CXP module, which supports 100G Ethernet and Infiniband IB-QDR / IB-DDR / IB-SDR applications. Exceeding the electrical requirements of IEEE 802.3ba 100G (100 GBASE-SR10 and CPPI) and optical specifications for the 100G-SR standard of 100m or a more aggressive 150m on OM4 fiber, the module supports the highest-density data communications and interconnection applications with an aggregate bandwidth in excess of 120G. Vitesse’s VSC7227 (claimed to be the industry’s lowest-power 12-channel solution), which supports data rates from 155Mbps to 14.1Gbps and adaptive equalization on each channel with no requirement for firmware. VSC7227 combines a CTLE/DFE input receiver that can equalize more than 30dB of loss, along with a 3-tap FIR output driver with better than 18dB of de-emphasis. This combination of input equalization and output driver can close links up to 65-inches of FR4 and 20m of copper cable.
The joint reference platform is available for viewing at SC12 in Avago’s booth #737. Along with the active hardware demonstration, a complete interoperability report is now available.