Enabling 800-gigabit optics with physical layer ICs

Broadcom recently announced a family of 800-gigabit physical layer (PHY) chips. The device family is the company’s first 800-gigabit ICs with 100-gigabit input-output (I/O) interfaces.

Source: Broadcom

Moving from 50-gigabit to 100-gigabit-based I/O enables a new generation of 800-gigabit modules aligned with the latest switch chips.

“With the switch chip having 100-gigabit I/Os, PHYs are needed with the same interfaces,” says Machhi Khushrow, senior director of marketing, physical layer products division at Broadcom.

Broadcom’s latest 25.6 terabit-per-second (Tbps) Tomahawk 4 switch chip using 100-gigabit I/O was revealed at the same time.

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COBO: specification work nearing completion

The Consortium for On-board Optics (COBO) is on target to complete its specifications work by the year end. The work will then enter a final approval stage that will take up to a further three months.

On-board optics, also known as mid-board or embedded optics, have been available for years but vendors have so far had to use custom products. The goal of COBO, first announced in March 2015 and backed by such companies as Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Finisar and Intel, is to develop a technology roadmap and common specifications for on-board optics to ensure interoperability.

Brad Booth (pictured), the chair of COBO and principal architect for Microsoft’s Azure Global Networking Services, says that bringing optics inside systems raises a different set of issues compared to pluggable optical modules used on the front panel of equipment. “If you have a requirement for 32 ports on a faceplate, you know mechanically what you can build,” says Booth.

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