Finisar Accelerates 10G Ethernet Server Connectivity

By DE Editors

Finisar Corporation (Sunnyvale, CA)  says it has introduced the fiber-optic industry’s first serial 10Gbps active optical cable family designed to accelerate and support 10G Ethernet server connectivity. Laserwire consists of fiber-optic cable, a high-density electrical connector, and 10G Ethernet adapter modules to facilitate adoption into legacy transceiver ports. Using fiber-optic technology for the transmission of data reduces the weight, density, and power consumption of copper wire.

According to Finisar, supercomputing clusters are hampered by the physical burdens of CX-4 copper cable. The Laserwire cable assembly is small, light, and consumes less power. Also, the fiber-optic cable allows a smaller bend radius, thus providing greater flexibility during the installation of computer clusters. Its electrical connector was specifically developed for high-density applications and can support large cluster configurations, including 48 port 1U switches. The connector can also be mounted in space-constrained LOM (LAN on motherboard)  designs.

“As 10 Gig servers become more prevalent in the data center,” says Stephen Garrison, vice president of marketing at Force10 Networks. “power and 10 Gig interconnect cost became a significant challenge, as does connecting these servers in a way that allows organizations to optimize their computing power.”

Laserwire significantly reduces power consumption in datacenter applications, states the release, and, when compared with 10GBase-T solutions, it consumes nearly 95 percent less power, resulting in lower heat dissipation and reduced cooling requirements. In addition to the Laserwire cable and connector, the family will include transceiver adapter modules that will enable Laserwire to plug into traditional optical transceiver ports. This will allow system builders and data centers to use Laserwire in legacy systems for 10GbE connectivity.

For more information on Laserwire, contact Finisar.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.