Luxtera Intros Silicon Chipset

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Luxtera, the worldwide leader in Silicon CMOS Photonics, today announced its new optical engine chip-set supporting next generation high performance computing (HPC) and data center optical connectivity. The optical engine launches Luxtera’s chip-set product line as the company transitions from the Active Optical Cable (AOC) business to the Semiconductor Component business model. The engine supports four fully-integrated 14 Gbps opto-electronic transceiver channels on a single CMOS chip. It is targeted for next generation InfiniBand, Ethernet, SAS and Fibre Channel applications and marks the next step in Luxtera’s delivery of fully integrated, low cost, transceiver chip-set family spanning from 10 Gbps to 1 Tbps.

Increasing server network performance, driven by next generation CPUs and chipsets supporting PCI-Express 3.0, requires faster interconnect to balance computing and storage resources and maximize system performance. To meet this need, InfiniBand is migrating to 4x14 Gbps FDR while storage applications are migrating to 4x12 Gbps SAS and 16 Gbps Fibre Channel data rates – pushing past practical limits of passive copper interconnect longer than a few meters. In turn, this drives the need for next generation, high performance optical connectivity.. Luxtera’s LUX2020A optical engine will be incorporated into the AOC product family recently purchased by Molex Incorporated as part of Luxtera’s transition to a fabless semiconductor chip-sets supplier business model.

“The introduction of Luxtera’s optical engine marks the next step in advancement for QSFP AOCs,” said Tom Marrapode, director of marketing, fiber optic products group, Molex. “We recently formed a strategic partnership with Luxtera that outlined a product roadmap to support faster data rates and new form factors. Molex has been on the forefront of QSFP product family development from electrical connectors to copper and fiber cabling. Luxtera’s new optical engine and its integration into Molex’s optical transceivers extends our product family to next generation data rates and delivers on our commitment to customers to deliver the industry’s leading portfolio of connectivity solutions.”

Luxtera Inc.