Published in Network

Intel delays silicon photonics technology

by on04 February 2015


Not up to snuff

Intel has delayed shipment of a component module required for its silicon photonics technology, because they are not meeting quality specifications.

The original batch of modules, which was supposed to ship at the beginning of the year, will now be used as samples for testing.

Now it looks like silicon photonics cables for connecting servers won't be installed before 2016.
The delay will hurt customers who are counting on silicon photonics for specific applications in the near term, although more widespread adoption was still a few years away anyway.

Servers that support silicon photonics will have special MXC connectors in which fibre optic cables are plugged. One MXC connection, which combines multiple silicon modules, could eventually transfer data at up to 1.6Tbps (terabytes per second), or 800Gbps in each direction.

Silicon photonics has been researched for more than a decade and Intel wants to make sure the modules work well before launch.

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