Avago Technologies Unveils Market's First Optical Transceiver

Avago Technologies (Nasdaq: AVGO), a leading supplier of analog interface components for communications, industrial and consumer applications, today announced sample availability for two new fiber-optic transceivers with 14.025-Gbps throughput per lane here at the 2011 Optical Fiber Conference (OFC). The new SFP+ transceiver addresses 16 Gigabit Fibre Channel switches, host bus adapters, RAID controllers and tape drives, as well as inter-switch and inter-chassis aggregated links. The four-channel QSFP+ transceiver targets switch and router interconnects for data communications and telecommunications, data aggregation and backplane applications, and proprietary protocol and high-density link applications. The modules are the first in the Avago 14-Gbps optical transceiver platform, offering increased port-density for systems compared to 8-Gbps Fibre Channel optics.

“Avago leverages a unique collection of core technology and design expertise to bring new performance standards and innovative form-factors first to market, as is the case with our 14-Gbps platform,” said Victor Krutul, director of marketing for the Fiber Optics Products Division at Avago. “Our new 16 Gigabit Fibre Channel SFP+ and four-channel QSFP+ modules are already winning designs with top systems manufacturers in high-density applications. We are looking to build on this early success by adding more new solutions to our 14-Gbps platform.”

The new transceivers incorporate the unparalleled reliability of Avago 850-nm Vertical-Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) technology and PIN detector technology. This combination insures that the multi-rate SFP+ module is compliant with FC-PI-5 and 16/8.5/4.25 Gigabit Fibre Channel specifications. The SFP+ module’s transmitter and receiver can operate at different data rates, as is often required during Fibre Channel speed negotiation.

The hot-pluggable QSFP+ module is compliant with the QSFP+ SFF-8436 specification. The QSFP+ transceiver reduces power dissipation per lane by 50 percent compared to 8-Gbps Fibre Channel technology. The Avago 14-Gbps platform has the potential to address Infiniband FDR applications as well.

In a related announcement at OFC, Avago introduced new solutions in its innovative portfolio of 10 to 120 Gigabit fiber optics and provided details on demonstrations in the Avago booth that highlight customer technology partnerships and bringing optics to new markets.