Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Mellanox Ships Optical Transceiver Modules for 100Gbps Networks 

SUNNYVALE, Calif. & YOKNEAM, Israel, March 16, 2017 -- Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX), a supplier of high-performance, end-to-end smart interconnect solutions for data center servers and storage systemstoday announced that it has shipped more than 200,000 VCSEL and silicon photonics transceiver modules to serve the growing demand of hyperscale Web 2.0, cloud, and enterprise 100Gb/s networks. The modules are delivered in the QSFP28 form factor as Active Optical Cables (AOCs) or as standalone pluggable transceivers.

“The 100Gb/s optical transceivers market has ramped very quickly and we have ramped our optical manufacturing capabilities with it, and are shipping multiple product families in high volume,” said Amir Prescher, senior vice president of business development and general manager of the interconnect business at Mellanox. “Multi-mode optics are the most cost effective solution on the market today to connect 25G and 100G Ethernet servers and switches over shorter data center reaches. For longer reaches, customers selected our silicon photonics-based PSM4 transceivers as the most cost effective, highest configurable, single-mode transceiver available.”

“The 100Gb/s transceiver and AOC market grew dramatically in 2016 to about $1.15 billion with demand exceeding supply. The early adopter hyperscale and HPC spaces lead consumption,” remarked Dale Murray, Principal Analyst, Lightcounting Market Research. “Going forward, we see 100G quickly surpassing the very popular 40G and going on to have a very long life cycle.”

Recently, Mellanox announced that is has shipped over 100,000 Direct Attach Copper (DAC) cables for 100Gb/s networks. DAC are used to link servers and storage to Top-of-Rack switches; typically less than 3 meters in length. Transceivers and AOCs offer lengths up to 2km. This announcement of optical transceivers confirms the broader market expansion of 100Gb/s networks.

Key application segments driving demand are the next-generation 100Gb/s networks in hyperscale, Web 2.0, enterprise, and storage as well as High Performance Computers. System builders are more broadly upgrading from 10G and 40Gb/s to 25, 50 and 100Gb/s networks.

To meet the high-volume demand and aggressive cost targets of end customers, Mellanox designs its own ICs, uses automated manufacturing and parallel system testing. Mellanox’s “end to end” control of the supply chain and manufacturing lines ensures that the Company can scale to meet market demand with limited reliance on third-party suppliers.

As a result of advanced supply chain control and manufacturing techniques, Mellanox is able to achieve the low bit error rate of 1E-15 for optical transceivers and AOCs, which is 1,000 times better than the IEEE industry minimum specification.

Mellanox is exhibiting at the Optical Fiber Conference (OFC), March 21-23 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, booth no. 3715. Mellanox will be showing live demonstrations of all its 100Gb/s end-to-end solutions in switching, network adapter and copper and optical cables and transceivers:

  • Spectrum SN2700, SN2410 and SN2100 100Gb/s QSFP28/SFP28 switches
  • ConnectX-4 and ConnectX-5 25G/50G/100Gb/s QSFP28/SFP28 network adapters
  • LinkX 25G/50G/100Gb/s DAC and AOC cables and SR4 and PSM4 transceivers
  • New Quantum switches with 40 ports of 200Gb/s QSFP28 in 1RU chassis
  • New ConnectX-6 adapters with two ports of 200Gb/s QSFP28
  • 200Gb/s 50G PAM4 silicon photonics demonstrations

The Company will also be demonstrating interoperability of our Silicon Photonics 100Gb/s PSM4 with Innolight, AOI, Oclaro, and Hisense transceivers and interoperability demonstrations in the Ethernet Alliance booth no. 1709.

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About Mellanox

Mellanox Technologies (NASDAQ: MLNX) is a leading supplier of end-to-end InfiniBand and Ethernet smart interconnect solutions and services for servers and storage. Mellanox interconnect solutions increase data center efficiency by providing the highest throughput and lowest latency, delivering data faster to applications and unlocking system performance capability. Mellanox offers a choice of fast interconnect products: adapters, switches, cables and transceivers, software and silicon that accelerate application runtime and maximize business results for a wide range of markets including high performance computing, enterprise data centers, Web 2.0, cloud, storage and financial services. More information is available at: www.mellanox.com.


Source: Mellanox

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