OCTOBER 8, 2007 -- XLoom Communications Inc. (search for XLoom) says its new AVDAT 4X optical 10GBase-CX4 transceiver is the first drop-in optical interconnect replacement for InfiniBand 4X and 10GBase-CX4 electrical connector receptacles.
XLoom touts the AVDAT 4X, a compact four-lane optical transceiver, as the industry's first transceiver with footprint and contact-pattern compatible with CX4. It is designed for use in InfiniBand host channel adapters (HCAs) as well as InfiniBand and Ethernet switches to extend link reach to more than a 100 m for 20-GBaud/sec speeds compared with the few meters supported by copper cables. The AVDAT 4X supports InfiniBand SDR and DDR speeds as well as 10-Gigabit Ethernet XAUI optical interfaces and Fibre Channel switches.
AVDAT 4X is powered by iFlame, XLoom's second generation of commercial optical chips. XLoom says the key capability is its footprint and contact-pattern compatible with CX4, the four-channel electrical connector receptacle defined by InfiniBand Architecture Release 1.2.
Key product highlights include:
- optical drop-in replacement for InfiniBand 4X, requires no host-board changes as it maintains the same electrical foot print of a 10GbaseCX electrical connector
- miniature fiber-optic transceiver with 20-GBaud bandwidth in each direction, compatible with recent DDR systems
- uses standard multimode 12-fiber ribbons with standard MPO connectors
- four channels in each direction; up to 5-GBaud (DDR) line rate per channel
- typical power consumption is 1 W
- 3.3-V power supply.
According to Lloyd Dickman, CTO for QLogic's System Interconnect Group, "AVDAT 4X enables optical interconnects for InfiniBand right off-the-board in the same way many data centers use Fibre Channel and Ethernet optical interconnects, further widening the cabling technology alternatives available for InfiniBand in data center applications."
The AVDAT 4X is currently sampling and is being integrated into multiple InfiniBand and Ethernet switches, as well as various HCAs, XLoom adds.