Phyworks announced it has successfully completed system level interoperability testing of its 10Gbps active equalizer in an SFP+ active copper cable assembly. The testing, which was carried out at the University of New Hampshire’s Interoperability Laboratory, indicated 100 percent error-free transmission passing data between different switches could be achieved by copper cables integrating the PHY2060 active equalizer/re-timer IC.

 

Datacenter operators are turning to interconnect technology as a means of reducing cost and power consumption to support an increasing range of voice, video and data services. They are also looking to keep capital expenditure down while doing this.

 

The Cisco (News - Alert) Nexus 5020 and Arastra DCS-7124S switches were connected to each end of a 10 meter (33 feet), 26AWG twin-ax copper cable assembly in the packet error ratio test. At a BER of 10-12 or better, data traffic composed of 200 million 1518-byte ICMP echo requests was generated and sent across the cable. It was confirmed that no data packets were lost. Throughout the world, Phyworks’ analog and mixed signal ICs bring ultra high-performance to optical fiber and copper cable communications in datacom, storage and telecom systems. Phyworks’ range of chips provides smaller form factor, low power, higher speed and of course lower cost.

 

Phyworks CEO Stephen King said, “Datacenters, system and cable manufacturers are all seeking a lower power, lower cost alternative to existing 10G optical and copper solutions for short range data links. This independent operability test, from a well respected test house, proves that copper cables can provide another solution at 10G which is better suited to shorter distances than 10GBASE-SR and CX4. In terms of reliability and performance, we have already proven that copper cable assemblies based on the PHY2060 chip will actually guarantee link performance up to 30 meters, and since 80 percent of data center interconnects for example are up to this length, the test results will be significant news for the industry as a whole. Datacenters in particular need cost, weight and power taken out.”