Luxtera Extends Blazar

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Luxtera today launched the world’s longest Active Optical Cable (AOC), Blazar. Extending up to four kilometers, this 40 Gigabit InfiniBand and Ethernet-ready cable meets the growing demand from data centers for long range connectivity. By providing virtually unlimited reach, Blazar maximizes layout options and simplifies installation, including the ability to easily set up larger clusters and deploy across multiple floors, rooms and buildings.

Blazar utilizes Luxtera’s Silicon CMOS Photonics technology and low cost single-mode fiber to break through the reach restrictions associated with existing vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) and multi-mode fiber technologies that are currently on the market. These multi-mode fiber solutions are limited up to 100-meter reach with conventional OM-2 fiber at more than twice the cost of single-mode fiber.

Unlike traditional optics that utilize VCSELs and multi-mode fiber for short connections, and edge-emitting lasers and single-mode fiber for long reach, Luxtera’s Silicon CMOS Photonics-based single chip transceivers support any distance from one meter to four kilometers utilizing the same low cost transceiver.

“There is an increasing need in data centers for low cost, longer reach cables that provide layout design flexibility and yet maintain the multi-lane, multi-gigabit capability of today’s fastest interconnect fabrics,” said Bob Ciotti, Chief Architect of NASA's Advanced Supercomputing center. “We have an immediate need for optical active cables that economically deliver the reach required to interconnect systems in large computing rooms, between different floors and multiple buildings in a campus environment.”

Luxtera Inc.