Industry Leaders Unveil "X40" Collaboration to Reduce 40 Gb/s Costs with Hot-Pluggable Multi-Rate 40 Gb/s Optical Transceiver
Multi-Source Agreement Defines Transceiver for High-Speed Uplinks with Longer Reach, Reduced Power, Increased Port Density, Lower Total System Cost
Sunnyvale, Calif., Nov. 1, 2006-2007 - Nine leading networking, system, optical module, semiconductor, and connector companies, including Aeluros, Inc., Broadcom Corporation, Emcore Corporation, Finisar Corporation, Infinera Corporation, Juniper Networks, Inc., MergeOptics GmbH, Tyco Electronics Corporation and Vitesse Semiconductor, Inc., today announced they have formed the X40 Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) Group, a collaboration to develop a new, integrated, data-agnostic, multi-rate optical transceiver, intended to support a range of 40 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) links that may be used for Telecom (e.g. SONET/SDH and G.709) and Datacom (e.g. packet switching) applications. The X40 MSA Group members invite companies from all sectors of the industry to express interest and submit views on the requirements for this innovative application.
The X40 MSA is expected to enable network equipment manufacturers to increase port density and system data throughput, extend link distances, reduce power and reduce cost per Gb/s significantly compared to existing 40 Gb/s solutions in the market. This hot-pluggable transceiver module utilizes a mechanical form-factor similar to XENPAK to integrate four transmit and four receive channels and optically multiplex them into a single pair (transmit and receive) of optical fibers. Supported nominal per-channel data rates range from 9.953 Gb/s to 11.1 Gb/s, providing an integrated data throughput range of 39.8 Gb/s to 44.4 Gb/s. The X40 module's electrical interface to the host board is based on four lanes of XFI as defined by SFF-INF-8077i.
"The X40 transceiver module will make 40 Gb/s networks more economical by bringing the cost points and maturity of 10 Gb/s components to the 40 Gb/s world," said Drew Perkins, chairman of the X40 MSA Group and co-founder and CTO of Infinera.
"The deployment of 40 Gb/s networks has been limited by the high costs of many components and modules required for 40 Gb/s systems," said Dr. Daryl Inniss, vice president of Ovum-RHK's Communication Components research. "Bringing together a broad group of leading industry players to focus on producing a standard X40 MSA can lead to greater deployment of 40 Gb/s systems and lower costs for customers."
The initial X40 physical media interface will be defined to meet the requirements for short reach metro access links up to 10 km. Current 40 Gb/s transceivers based on the industry-standard 300-pin MSA are generally limited to 2 km before chromatic dispersion makes compensation required. The X40 will use four uncooled CWDM wavelengths around 1310nm, and will carry 10 Gb/s data per channel, with the same 10 km reach as 10GBASE-LR interfaces. The X40 will also feature digital diagnostic capability to monitor link performance.
The X40 MSA group will make details of the specification available to the industry so that other optical transceiver manufacturers can produce compatible products and system vendors can begin to design equipment to utilize the transceivers. Further details, including a presentation about the X40 vision and technology, may be obtained by contacting the X40 chairman Drew Perkins, or any of the other member contacts listed below. The X40 Group is seeking input from all sections of the industry. Interested parties should contact the members.
About the X40 MSA Group:
The X40 MSA Group welcomes application for membership from component, transceiver and network equipment manufacturers as well as carriers and other network operators. More information about joining the X40 MSA Group and status and availability of the specification is available at www.x40msa.org.
For further information, please contact the following representatives:
| Company | Technical Contact | Press Contact |
 Aeluros, Inc. |
Shantanu Mitra
(650)-917-2015 smitra@post.aeluros.com |
Siddharth Sheth
(650) 917-7062 sheth@aeluros.com |
 Broadcom Corporation |
Ali Ghiasi
(408) 922-7423 aghiasi@broadcom.com |
Scott Harlin
(949) 926-5226 sharlin@broadcom.com |
 Emcore Corporation |
Ken Jackson
(505) 349-0922 Kenneth_Jackson@Emcore.com |
Ken Jackson
(505) 349-0922 Kenneth_Jackson@Emcore.com |
 Finisar Corporation |
Chris Cole
(408) 400-1043 chris.cole@finisar.com |
Victoria McDonald
(408) 542-4261 victoria.mcdonald@finisar.com |
 Infinera Corporation |
Drew Perkins
(408) 572-5308 dperkins@infinera.com |
Jeff Ferry
(408) 572-5213 jferry@infinera.com |
 Juniper Networks, Inc. |
Brad Turner
(408) 745-2000 bturner@juniper.net |
Susan Ursch
(987) 589-0124 sursch@juniper.net |
 MergeOptics, GmbH |
Frank Becker
+49 30 4303 8220 frank.becker@mergeoptics.com |
Frank Becker
+49 30 4303 8220 frank.becker@mergeoptics.com |
 Tyco Electronics |
Ed Bright
(717) 592-6041 ejbright@tycoelectronics.com |
Mike Ratcliff
(717) 592-2316 mike.ratcliff@tycoelectronics.com |
 Vitesse Semiconductor |
Badri Gomatam
(805) 389-7183 badri@vitesse.com |
Richard Interrante
(805) 389-7103 rai@vitesse.com |