By Mark Telford
As part of its strategy to develop optical technology, Intel Corp launched two new 10Gbit/s optical transceivers in February.
Malcolm Hay, European marketing manager, Optical and Platform Networking Products, says Intel is targeting the 10Gbit/s data rate due to the concurrent transitions from 2.5 to 10Gbit/s SONET, and from 1-10Gbit/s Ethernet as it spreads from LAN to WAN and eventually the metro arena.
This will enable convergence of technologies, such as for framers, by varying some components within a multi-rate module.
The specifications for the new transceivers are: the 300-pin MSA-compliant TXN13200 - one version for OC192 SONET and one for 10GE - with the integrated LXT16784/85 Serialiser/Deserialiser; and the XENPAK MSA-compliant XN17401 (also for 10GE). Use of uncooled lasers shrinks the footprint by more than half and the power consumption by nearly 35% (to 6.5W), allowing twice the number of channels per line card.
Although small-volume, costly boutique optical component manufacturing, involving laborious manual alignment, is "not interesting" to Intel, 10Gbit/s transmissions will drive the transition to high-volume automated alignment - a capability Intel acquired with LightLogic and which enables greater integration.
Capacity is currently being ramped from 50,000 to 100,000 modules per year, as optical connections will spread to desktops "within a few years," says Hay.