Altera optical FPGA in 100 Gigabit Ethernet traffic demo

Altera is demonstrating its optical FPGA at OFC/NFOEC, being held in Los Angeles this week. The FPGA, coupled to parallel optical interfaces, is being used to send and receive 100 Gigabit Ethernet packets of various sizes. 

The technology demonstrator comprises an Altera Stratix IV FPGA with 28, 11.3Gbps electrical transceivers coupled to two Avago Technologies' MicroPod optical modules. 

"FPGAs are now being used for full system level solutions"

Kevin Cackovic, Altera

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Challenges, progress & uncertainties facing the optical component industry

In recent years the industry has moved from direct detection to coherent transmission and has alighted on a flexible ROADM architecture. The result is a new level in optical networking sophistication. OFC/NFOEC 2012 will showcase the progress in these and other areas of industry consensus as well as shining a spotlight on issues less clear.

Optical component players may be forgiven for the odd envious glance towards the semiconductor industry and its well-defined industry dynamics. 

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OFC/NFOEC 2012: Technical paper highlights

Source: The Optical Society

Novel technologies, operators' experiences with state-of-the-art optical deployments and technical papers on topics such as next-generation PON and 400 Gigabit and 1 Terabit optical transmission are some of the highlights of the upcoming OFC/NFOEC conference and exhibition, to be held in Los Angeles from March 4-8, 2012. Here is a taste of some of the technical paper highlights.

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The CFP4 optical module to enable Terabit blades

The next-generation CFP modules - the CFP2 and CFP4 - promise to double and double again the number of 100 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) optical module interfaces on a blade.

Using the CFP4, up to 16, 100Gbps modules will fit on a blade, a total line rate of 1.6 Terabits-per-second (Tbps). With a goal of a 60W total module power budget per blade, that equates to 27Gbps/W. In comparison, the power-efficient SFP+ achieves 10Gbps/W.

 

Source: Gazettabyte, Xilinx

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