800G MSA defines PSM8 while eyeing 400G’s progress

A key current issue regarding data centres is forecasting the uptake of 400-gigabit optics.

If a rapid uptake of 400-gigabit optics occurs, it will also benefit the transition to 800-gigabit modules. But if the uptake of 400-gigabit optics is slower, some hyperscalers could defer and wait for 800-gigabit pluggables instead.

So says Maxim Kuschnerov, a spokesperson for the 800G Pluggable MSA (multi-source agreement).

Maxim Kuschnerov

The 800G MSA has issued its first 800-gigabit pluggable specification.

Dubbed the PSM8, the design uses the same components as 400-gigabit optics, doubling capacity in the same QSFP-DD pluggable form factor.

“Four-hundred-gigabit modules hitting volume is crucially important because the 800-gigabit specification leverages 400-gigabit components,” says Kuschnerov. “The more 400-gigabit is delayed, it impacts everything that comes after.”

Click to read more ...

Ethernet Alliance on 800G and the next Ethernet rate

It may have taken the industry five years to get 400 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) modules shipping, but for Mark Nowell, Advisory Board Chair at the Ethernet Alliance, the long gestation period is understandable given the innovation that has been required.

Mark Nowell

The industry has had to cram complex technology into a small form factor for 400GbE while meeting the requirements of two very different end-customers: webscale players and communications service providers.

Click to read more ...

Companies gear up to make 800 Gig modules a reality

Nine companies have established a multi-source agreement (MSA) to develop optical specifications for 800-gigabit pluggable modules.

Maxim Kuschnerov

The MSA has been created to address the continual demand for more networking capacity in the data centre, a need that is doubling roughly every two years. The largest switch chips deployed have a 12.8 terabit-per-second (Tbps) switching capacity while 25.6-terabit and 51-terabit devices are in development. 

“The MSA members believe that for 25.6Tbps and 51.2Tbps switching silicon, 800-gigabit interconnects are required to deliver the required footprint and density,” says Maxim Kuschnerov, a spokesperson for the 800G Pluggable MSA.

A 1-rack-unit (1RU) 25.6-terabit switch platform will use 32 such 800-gigabit modules while a 51.2-terabit 2RU platform will require 64.

Click to read more ...