Optical fibre cables link clusters to centre

ZLynx optical fibre cables connect enterprise data centres and high-performance computer clusters.

Zarlink Semiconductor has brought out a fully integrated EOE cable product for interconnecting enterprise data centres and high-performance computer clusters.

As standard copper-cable assemblies strain to meet new speed and link length demands in data centres, Zarlink's ZLynx optical fibre cables with integrated electrical terminations provide installers and operators with big advantages in terms of reach, weight and flexibility.

Zarlink will be demonstrating its ZLynx optical cable products at the Optical Fiber Communication conference in Anaheim, California (27th-29th March, Booth#3659).

Today, data transmission at 10Gbit/s and above in data centres and high-performance computer clusters is often implemented using CX4 connectors terminating fat copper cable assemblies.

The bulk, weight, inflexibility and limited reach of multistrand copper cable assemblies is increasingly a barrier to installation, maintenance and expansion.

"ZLynx optical cables represent a revolutionary performance leap for data centre operators", says Dr Marco Ghisoni, ZLynx Product Manager, Zarlink Optical Solutions.

"ZLynx products drive interconnect reach ten times further than copper, while eliminating weight, interference and flexibility concerns as data centres expand".

"For the end user, standardised port connectors means these performance advantages can be realised seamlessly and without any system, server or network hardware upgrades".

Zarlink's ZLynx products are one-piece optical fibre cable assemblies with integrated, industry-standard electrical terminations capable of 20Gbit/s transmission in both directions and 5Gbit/s duplex four-channel data transmission, for distances up to 100m.

The standard connector, compact size and robust latch mechanism allow ease of use with most equipment chassis.

The optical cable uses 3.3V supplied directly from the electrical port connector.

Typical power consumption is just 1W per connector.

"InfiniBand technology is now mainstream for networking high performance computing clusters and storage", says Lloyd Dickman, Chief Technology Officer for InfiniBand Products, QLogic Computer Systems Group.

"New technologies are needed to support both the increasing bandwidth requirements and the longer link distances needed for scaling clusters".

"ZLynx optical cables from Zarlink support 20Gbit/s InfiniBand bandwidth at distances up to 100m".

"Penn State HPC group works to empower university researchers and students in their ability to compute and manage data by developing and maintaining several state-of-the-art computational clusters", says Vijay Agarwala, Director of Research Computing at ITS.

"Zarlink's ZLynx optical cable solutions can solve many issues in our cable management strategy".

"For example, allowing us longer link distances, providing cable bend flexibility, better in-cabinet cable management, and scalability for use in our multistorey data centre".

"This allows us to make better use of our investment in currently available InfiniBand infrastructure solutions".

Current sampling, Zarlink's ZLynx products target InfiniBand DDR (dual data rate) at 4 x 5Gbit/s per channel and 10 Gigabit Ethernet XAUI at 4 x 3.125Gbit/s applications.

Pre-production units are available, with general availability in Q2CY07.

This will be the first in the ZLynx family of optical cables available at cable lengths up to 100m and terminated with a number of high-speed electrical connectors.

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