Luxtera Inc., the world leader in CMOS Photonics, today announced that it is the first company to sample a 40 Gigabit Optical Active Cable (OAC), the Blazar. Luxtera’s OAC will be available to customers following its demonstration at the International Conference for High Performance Computing – SC07. The product is ideally suited for InfiniBand and Ethernet applications in High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters and data centers.

At SC07, Luxtera will hold three live demonstrations with Mellanox Technologies, Qlogic and Fulcrum Microsystems. The demonstrations will showcase InfiniBand protocol at QDR 40 Gbps and SDR 10 Gbps data rates, as well as high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.

Luxtera’s CMOS Photonics based interconnect was also selected for the exclusive Disruptive Technologies exhibit. A disruptive technology is an innovation or product that eventually overturns the existing dominant technology in the market. Luxtera’s Blazar fits the disruptive criteria as the world’s first QSFP 40 Gbps OAC and first CMOS Photonics product.

“As we begin sampling, we’re excited to demonstrate Luxtera’s 40 Gigabit Optical Active Cable interoperating with products from market leaders,” said Marek Tlalka, vice president of marketing for Luxtera. “Our breakthrough CMOS Photonics technology uses a single die for what has traditionally been implemented using multiple components. As a result, Blazar breaks paradigms of traditional optics by delivering a low cost, long reach and highly reliable solution that will change the landscape of data centers.”

“Demonstration of Luxtera’s CMOS Photonics based 40 Gbps Optical Active Cable is an important milestone for next generation InfiniBand deployments,” said Thad Omura, vice president of product marketing for Mellanox Technologies. “Systems with multi-core processors and PCIe Gen2 demand this I/O bandwidth for optimal clustered application performance and power efficiency. Higher bandwidths along with larger cluster sizes drive the demand for optical interconnect. Luxtera is well positioned to fill this need.”

Data centers and HPC clusters will gain 2x throughput and 3x reach using Blazar versus existing optical active cables. They will also gain 4x density improvement with one QSFP connector taking the same space as four XFP connectors. By utilizing Luxtera’s CMOS Photonics technology, Blazar delivers these improvements at prices comparable to today’s 20G interconnect.

“QSFP form factor enables higher density and higher connector reliability as well as provides smooth migration from SDR to DDR to QDR rates for the industry,” said Lloyd Dickman, Qlogic’s CTO for InfiniBand Products. “We are excited that Luxtera has overcome many obstacles and provided the market with a QSFP optical active cable at a price point needed by the market.”

SC07 is November 12-15 in Reno, Nevada. The three connectivity demos will take place at Luxtera’s main booth #384, Mellanox booth #127, Qlogic booth #261 and Luxtera’s Disruptive Technologies Exhibit in booth #94.

About Luxtera

Luxtera, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company and the world leader in silicon photonics. Luxtera fulfills the world’s insatiable demand for bandwidth by uniting the high performance of fiber-optic communications with the low-cost and high-volume manufacturing advantages of mainstream silicon CMOS fabrication. The company was founded in 2001 by a team of industry-renowned researchers and technology managers drawn from the communication and semiconductor industries. Luxtera is funded by leading venture capitalists: Sevin Rosen Funds, August Capital and New Enterprise Associates. Luxtera just announced its first commercial product based on its CMOS Photonics technology, Blazar, and will begin shipping later this year. Luxtera is headquartered in Carlsbad, CA. More information on Luxtera can be found on the company's web site: www.luxtera.com [1].