Altera demos FPGA interoperability with 100-Gbps optical module

Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) says it has successfully demonstrated interoperability between its 28-nm Stratix V GT FPGAs and a 100-Gbps optical module. The company claims this is the first time interoperability has been demonstrated.

The demonstration will go on show at OFC/NFOEC at the Los Angeles Convention Center from March 6 to 8, 2012, in the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) multi-vendor booth 713 (see "OIF members plan 100G interface interoperability demo").

The demonstration tests 28-Gbps transmission technology over 2 km of singlemode fiber, using Molex's zQSFP+ Interconnect System as well as 100-Gbps chips from Gennum Corp.

The demonstration takes four channels of PRBS31 data, which are transmitted from the Stratix V FPGA, over a Gennum VSR host channel with 12 dB of insertion loss, through a Molex zQSFP+ connector to Gennum clock and data recovery (CDR) integrated circuits. The retimed outputs of the CDRs are transmitted to the Molex 1490-nm optical module, which loops the optical data back to its receiver through 2 km of singlemode fiber. In the receive direction, the data flows in the reverse order through the cascaded blocks ending at the FPGA. The error checkers within Altera's FPGA verify that the entire transmit and receive data path through the system is operating error free.

Altera's Stratix V GT devices are designed to support 25- to 28-Gbps data streams for next-generation 100-Gbps pluggable fiber-optic modules, line cards, and direct-attach copper cables using the 25G QSFP+ and CFP2 form factors. Stratix V FPGAs support backplane, optical module, and chip-to-chip applications through 28-Gbps transceivers, using up to 66 full-duplex 14.1-Gbps transceivers.

Altera claims that the Stratix V FPGAs deliver the highest system bandwidth at the lowest power consumption: under 200 mW per channel at 28 Gbps. They also provide exceptional jitter performance and reliability, the company claims.

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