Cortina Systems, Acacia Communications pair for 100-Gbps coherent optical equipment designs

Chip-maker Cortina Systems, Inc. and startup Acacia Communications have announced that Cortina’s CS605x 100G and 40G ASSP Optical Transport Network (OTN) processors will interoperate with Acacia’s 100G coherent optical modules. The combination is therefore ready to meet the needs of network equipment manufacturers looking to add coherent-based 100-Gbps capabilities to their systems, the companies say.

The activities of Acacia Communications, based in Maynard, MA, have been a matter of industry speculation for some time. This the first public announcement referencing the company’s 100-Gbps coherent modules, which the Acacia Communications website suggests leverage “the continuous advances in sub-micron CMOS semiconductor technology in combination with Acacia's proprietary and novel DSP algorithms and high-speed optical architectures.” The site further reveals that Acacia expects to deliver the first 100-Gbps subsystem based on 40-nm CMOS processes.

Matrix Partners, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, and OFS are investors.

"Carriers require cost-effective solutions that support an unprecedented level of integration while meeting standards, enabling the deployment of high quality, data intensive services, and reducing operational costs," said John LoMedico, Acacia’s vice president of sales and business development, in a press statement. "Interoperability between our 100G Coherent Optical Module and the Cortina 100G ASSP OTN processor ensures a comprehensive 100G solution that will help drive high-performance, more cost-effective designs."

Meanwhile, the Cortina CS605x family made its debut last November (see “Cortina Systems 100-Gbps ASSP targets converged OTN and Ethernet”). It offers such features as direct interface to optical modules, integrated jitter attenuation clean-up PLLs, and support for configurable forward error correction (FEC) options. The CS605x supports 100G (OTU4 and 100GbE) and 3x40G (OTU3 and 40GbE) interfaces and is capable of aggregating and mapping multiple protocols and client applications at 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps, and 100 Gbps rates.

"Personalized services such as video streaming, mobile data coupled with emerging cloud computing, and hosted application services are driving service providers to upgrade to higher-capacity, faster, and more efficient networks deploying 100G wavelengths," said Arun Zarabi, vice president, Infrastructure Business Unit, Cortina Systems, in the same press release. "Our collaboration with Acacia reinforces Cortina's leadership and commitment to enabling OEMs and system vendors to bring high-performance, cost-effective 100G solutions to market quickly."