Semtech – Cignal AI

OFC 2018 – 400G Inside the Datacenter

When the conversation at OFC turned to short reach client optics, faster speeds were the central focus. Several companies announced products and gave demonstrations of 400G capable technology. The 100G speeds and production ramp that had been such a hot topic at OFC 2017 had little follow-on during 2018.
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Semtech and Multiphy Demonstrate Single Lambda 100G Chipset for the Datacenter

Semtech and Multiphydemonstrate a single-lambda 100G solution at ECOC for DR4 modulation in a QSFP28. This included a single channel PAM-4 DSP from Multiphy, and modulator driver and TIA from Semtech.

“Single wavelength 100G is the ultimate solution for 100G in the data center, offering four times of fundamental cost improvement over existing 4x25Gbps solutions. This will be the preferred technology for high-volume applications in Cloud and colocation data centers,” said Andrew Schmitt, Founder at Cignal AI. “This new 100G chipset provides performance of greater than 2 km, effectively meeting all single mode needs for next-generation hyper-scale data centers.”

MultiPhy pivots to PAM-4 silicon, takes Semtech investment

Everyone is getting aboard the PAM-4 train.

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MultiPhy’s efforts with non-coherent 100G 4×28 solutions for metro interconnect met with limited success. Finisar was first to market with this approach, and their largest customer ADVA sold it with great success. But the volumes for this approach so far are dwarfed by shipments of coherent solutions.

Like InPhi, which has already invested heavily, MultiPhy will target the much larger volumes of the 2km datacenter market first then look to stretch the capabilities of PAM-4 to attack the 100G metro access market.