The lower cost and wider availability
of network interface cards (NICs) and
other optical components have led to
the recent upsurge in 10-Gigabit Ethernet
(10GE) networking. According to a
recent report by research firm IDC, installation
of 10GE ports will more than double from 1.4
million in 2007 to over 3 million by 2010 as
more and more network switches and other
datacom equipment adopt 10GE technology.
Avago’s SFP+ (small form-factor pluggable)
optical transceivers will go a long way to helping
10GE adoption as they increase port density
while holding the line on power consumption.
The AFBR-7000DZ optical transceiver
meets the IEEE’s 802.3ae 10GBASE-SR specifications
for short-reach optical networking (see
the figure). It also uses multimode fiber and
provides coverage up to 300 m.
The device uses Avago’s own 850-nm vertical-
cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs),
which are based on an Avago 4G VCSEL
design that has undergone over 2 billion
device hours of testing with no failures. The
receiver uses a PIN diode detector. Typical
power consumption is 600 mW. The transceiver
supports the SFF-8431 specification of 10GE SFP+ as well as the SFF-8472 specification
for the digital monitoring interface (DMI)
in optical transceivers.
The DMI uses an I2C interface to deliver
real-time temperature, supply voltage, laser
bias current, laser average output power, and
received input power information. A digital
diagnostic interface also adds the ability to
disable the transmitter, monitor for transmitter
faults, and monitor the receiver loss of signal.
The AFBR-7000DZ is available now at prices
that begin at $200 in reasonable volume.
Additionally, the company has a complete line
of optical transceivers for other Ethernet standards
as well as Sonet and Fibre Channel.
AVAGO TECHNOLOGIES • www.avagotech.com