EMCORE launches 120-Gbps active optical cable

EMCORE Corp. (NASDAQ:EMKR) says it is sampling a 120-Gbps CXP active optical cable to customers. Designed for high-performance computing (HPC) and high-end Ethernet router and switch applications, the 120-Gbps CXP is the latest in EMCORE's Connects Cables line of high-speed active optical cables.

EMCORE says the Connects Cables product family offers the advantages of optical interconnects at an affordable price. They reduce the installation and maintenance costs of computer clusters, enabling very large clusters, and are ideal for building systems based on any architecture that requires long distances and multiple computer nodes in very dense configurations.

EMCORE’s 120-Gbps CXP active optical cable is a high-density, low-weight, edge-mounted, bidirectional interconnect that can reach up to 100 m with what the company describes as an exceptionally low bit-error rate (BER). This equates to significantly less performance degradation over longer distances compared to traditional copper cables.

The CXP active optical cable is also more than 60% lighter with a bend radius that is 70% less than 26-AWG copper cables. The combination of lower weight, smaller bend radius, and the flexibility of the cable make it easier to install, maintain, and repair cluster cabling without straining server connectors, or affecting neighboring cables, the company says.

The EMCORE CXP active optical cable is hot-pluggable and fully compliant with the CXP multi-source agreement (MSA) and RoHS 6/6.

"Our 40-Gbps Quad Data Rate (QDR) cables are currently deployed in two of the top five supercomputers in the world," commented Jaime Reloj, EMCORE's vice president of business development. "By leveraging our next-generation vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) and photodetectors, we will continue to advance the technology for high-performance computing applications."

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