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New Report Examines Needs and Motivations for Optical Interconnect Implementation

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 00:00 CST

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c75455) has announced the addition of 100 Gbit Interconnects and Above: The Need for Speed to their offering.

Examines needs and motivations for optical interconnect implementation. Looks at the applications, history, market drivers, and future issues that affect this crossover.

The electronic society we live in today is seeing increased demand for data transfer, internet downloads, online applications, video sharing and storage. The electronic world of banks, companies, universities and governments require large secure datacenters connected to secure networks. This continuously drives for the development of more powerful servers and computer systems. The data centers today, are not a single computer system but a networked system with distributed processing, computational power and memory. The systems are connected by 'nodes', which connect the pieces of the 'computer'. The configuration depends on the applications, functionality and user requirements. This demanding environment is evolving and pushing for the development of higher speed interconnects.

Currently, copper interconnects are used extensively within the data center environment. Fiber optic technology is used as a connectivity solution when higher performance is required and the cost differential compared to a copper solution is affordable. Fiber optic technology offers several key advantages for data transmission compared to copper solutions. Within the data center today, there is ubiquitous use of multi-mode fiber and optical transceivers for rack to rack connections. The fiber ports provide dedicated links with reach up to 300 meters on multi-mode fiber and 2km on single mode fiber. The fiber connections allow networks to connect to the Wide Area or Local Area Networks (WAN or LAN). As improvements in fiber optic transceiver performance and reduction in cost have occurred, there has been further proliferation of fiber optics within the datacenter.

Traditionally, there has been a debate on the distance-cost cross over from a copper to an optic solution. As we delve into the interconnect market and technology, there are several different motivations for optical implementation. To understand the industrial and commercial aspect, we need to look into the applications, history, market drivers and future issues that are being discussed today. To increase the understanding on this topic and look at the area of high speed interconnects in the data center, the OIDA held a one day forum in conjunction with a silicon photonics forum. The objective was to solicit input on the current issues related to optical interconnect technology. This included examining the current research objectives of industry and universities, understanding the commercial objectives and maturity of today's technology.

Several different organizations within the industry have highlighted the technology issues facing copper interconnects, both for inter-chip, intra-chip and board to board communications. These were highlighted in a previous OIDA workshop, held in November 2004. How can optical interconnects achieve greater penetration of the data center and server markets? This is a reasonable question considering the economic factors in the industry today. This report will review aspects of this subject area, provide a synopsis of the information provided at the meeting and several conclusions on the topic discussed.

1. Introduction

2. Industry Objectives and Issues

3. Background

3.1. Server Industry Market Overview

3.2. Silicon Industry Technology Drivers

3.3. Silicon Industry Companies

3.4. Communications Industry Overview

3.4.1. Optical Components Companies

3.5. Government Initiatives

3.5.1. USA

3.5.2. Japanese government funding

3.6. Protocols for the Data Center

3.6.1. Network introduction

3.6.2. Ethernet

3.6.3. Fiber Channel

3.6.4. Infiniband

3.7. Standards development

4. Electrical Interconnects overview

4.1. Overview of the interconnect segmentation

4.1.1. Intra chip interconnects

4.1.2. Inter-chip interconnects

4.1.3. Back plane interconnects

4.2. RF considerations for back planes and connectors

4.3. Channel Model

4.4. ITRS roadmap for interconnects

4.5. 3-D stacking and wafer level interconnects

5. Optical Interconnects for back plane and boards

5.1. Fiber Optic Connectors and Cable Assemblies

5.2. Optical Transceivers

5.2.1. Single Channel -duplex

5.2.2. Parallel Channel

5.3. On-board waveguides

6. Economics

6.1. Transceivers

6.2. Dilemma with the economics for optical component implementations

7. Break out Session Discussions

8. Road Map

9. Recommendations

10. Summary and Conclusions

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c75455

Source: Business Wire

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