Ranovus readies its interfaces for deployment

• Products will be deployed in the first half of 2015
• Ranovus has raised US $24 million in a second funding round
• The start-up is a co-founder of the OpenOptics MSA; Oracle is now also an MSA member.

Ranovus says its interconnect products will be deployed in the first half of 2015. The start-up, which is developing WDM-based interfaces for use in and between data centres, has raised US $24 million in a second stage funding round. The company first raised $11 million in September 2013.

Saeid Aramideh"There is a lot of excitement around technologies being developed for the data centre," says Saeid Aramideh, a Ranovus co-founder and chief marketing and sales officer. He highlights such technologies as switch ICs, software-defined networking (SDN), and components that deliver cost savings and power-consumption reductions. "Definitely, there is a lot of money available if you have the right team and value proposition," says Aramideh. "Not just in Silicon Valley is there interest, but in Canada and the EU."

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First silicon photonics devices from STMicro in 2014

STMicroelectronics expects to have first silicon photonics products by mid-2014. The chip company announced the licensing of silicon photonics technology from Luxtera in March 2012. Since then STMicro has been developing its 300mm (12-inch) CMOS wafer manufacturing line for silicon photonics at its fab at Crolles, France.

Flavio Benetti, STMicroelectronics

"We think we are the only ones doing the processing in a 12-inch line," says Flavio Benetti, general manager of  mixed processes division at STMicroelectronics.

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Merits and challenges of optical transmission at 64 Gbaud

u2t Photonics announced recently a balanced detector that supports 64Gbaud. This promises coherent transmission systems with double the data rate. But even if the remaining components - the modulator and DSP-ASIC capable of operating at 64Gbaud - were available, would such an approach make sense?

Gazettabyte asked system vendors Transmode and Ciena for their views.

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Software-defined networking: A network game-changer?

Q&A with Andrew Lord, head of optical research at BT, about his impressions following the recent OFC/NFOEC show.

OFC/NFOEC reflections: Part 1

"We [operators] need to move faster"

Andrew Lord, BT

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A Terabit network processor by 2015?

Given that 100 Gigabit merchant silicon network processors will appear this year only, it sounds premature to discuss Terabit devices. But Alcatel-Lucent's latest core router family uses the 400 Gigabit FP3 packet-processing chipset, and one Terabit is the next obvious development.

Source: Gazettabyte

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OFC/NFOEC 2012 industry reflections - Part 1

The recent OFC/NFOEC show, held in Los Angeles, had a strong vendor presence. Gazettabyte spoke with Infinera's Dave Welch, chief strategy officer and executive vice president, about his impressions of the show, capacity challenges facing the industry, and the importance of the company's photonic integrated circuit technology in light of recent competitor announcements.

OFC/NFOEC reflections: Part 1 

"I need as much fibre capacity as I can get, but I also need reach" 

Dave Welch, Infinera

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The post-100 Gigabit era

Feature: Beyond 100G - Part 4

The latest coherent ASICs from Ciena and Alcatel-Lucent coupled with announcements from Cisco and Huawei highlight where the industry is heading with regard high-speed optical transport. But the announcements also raise questions too. 

Source: Gazettabyte

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