Ten industry leaders in multi-source agreement

IBPAK is a new multi-source agreement on common specifications for hot-pluggable 4x copper cable transceivers and 4x/12x fibre-optic transceivers that support InfiniBand-defined ports.

IBPAK is a new multi-source agreement (MSA) between Agilent Technologies, Infineon Technologies, InfiniCon Systems, Mindspeed Technologies, Molex, Optical Communication Products, Picolight, Sun Microsystems, Tyco Electronics and WL Gore and Associates.

The new MSA is intended to create common specifications for hot-pluggable 4x copper cable transceivers and 4x/12x fibre-optic transceivers that support InfiniBand-defined ports.

IBPAK intends to enable multiple compatible sources of front-panel, hot-swap capable, 10Gbit/s (four lane) and 30Gbit/s (12 lane) transceivers, including the electrical connector and guide rail.

The IBPAK specification incorporates the high-speed electrical, copper cable and fibre attachment requirements defined in InfiniBand Architecture Specification Volume 2, Release 1.1, and adds the necessary definition for the electrical connector, package outline, guide rail, hot-swap (hot-pluggable), test and control features to enable compatible and interchangeable solutions for 4x copper cable ports and 4x/12x fibre-optic ports.

Transceivers based on this MSA are expected to function as transparent retiming repeaters, providing robust board-to-board and interchassis interconnections enabling fabric linking equipment within data centres among InfiniBand servers or between servers and storage equipment.

The IBPAK specification also identifies common product specifications for the host PCB layout, front panel requirements, EMI seal, electrical and management interfaces, and thermal, EMI and ESD requirements.

IBPAK transceivers are expected to provide signal conditioning, vendor and product information, status reports and control via a serial interface.

The IBPAK MSA group plans to make the details of the specification available to the industry so that other transceiver and component manufacturers can produce compatible products.

The IBPAK final specification is expected in the third quarter of calendar year 2003, and IBPAK optical module member companies expect to begin shipping these new transceivers by the end of 2003.

More information on the MSA and status and availability of the specification is available at www.IBPAK.org.

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