Intel and partners ready production of 800Gbps optical network cable for supercomputer and data centre use, based on technology developed by the Intel Silicon Photonics laboratory.
The cables push 25Gbps of data across each fibre, and were first seen last year with speeds reaching 100Gbps. The connectors are called "MXC," an Intel-Corning development holding up to 64 fibres (32 up, 32 down) to allow the aforementioned 800Gbps connection speeds-- even if Intel prefers to speak of a "1.6Tbps" aggregate.
Enabling such connection speeds is silicon photonics, a transmission technology converting electrical signals into optical and vice versa.
"MXC cable assemblies have been sampled by Corning to customers and will be in production in Q3 2014," Intel says. "US Conec announced that it will sell MXC connector parts to Corning and other connector companies."
Cables will be available in 8-, 16-, 32- and 64-fibre configurations, and should hit the market by end H2 2014.
Go Intel
