Blaze to Demo 100-Gig CWDM Gear

ATLANTA -- Blaze Network Products Inc., today announced 100Gb/s Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) optics technology that will dramatically impact the proprietary backplane market. The optical module allows the concatenation of lower data rates for I/O transport in short reach applications. This CWDM-based parallel fiber data link will be demonstrated at the Supercomm 2001 conference, June 5 - 7, at the Blaze booth #9042. The 100Gb/s device utilizes VCSELs running at 2.488-3.125Gb/s. The link, combining CWDM and parallel optical architectures, launches 40 optical signals at the transmitter end into a 12-channel multimode ribbon fiber to a 40-channel receiver module. The electrical interface, due to the low data rate per channel, may be a parallel XAUI (10 gigabit attachment unit interface), OC-192 or OC-48 serial format. These interfaces, well defined within standards bodies, enable board designers to create layouts with known chipsets that can effectively "plug into" this high-density data link. The physical electrical interface is via an industry standard 300-pin FCI Meg-Array connector. "We believe 100Gb/s data links are the next plateau in parallel optical modules. Parallel CWDM configurations allow higher data transport rates from conventional ribbon fiber than previously possible. Additionally, the conventional low speed I/O's makes this technology attractive to system vendors as they can immediately implement the solution without waiting for next-generation MAC or framer chipsets," says Mike LaHa, product manager for Blaze.Blaze Network Products Inc.

For more information on Supercomm 2001, please visit the Light Reading Supercomm 2001 Preview Site.