Inphi Announces Commercial Availability and Production Ramp for ColorZ(TM)

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 20, 2017) -  Inphi Corporation (NYSE: IPHI), a leading provider of high-speed data movement interconnects, today announced the commercial availability and production ramp of "ColorZ," the industry's first Silicon Photonics 100G PAM4 platform solution for 80km DWDM Data Center Interconnect (DCI) in QSFP28 form factor. Announced a year ago at OFC 2016, ColorZ utilizes advanced Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM4) signaling and delivers up to 4Tb/s of bandwidth over a single fiber, allowing multiple data centers located up to 80km of each other to be connected and act like a single data center.

According to ACG Research, the worldwide optical infrastructure market is predicted to grow from $13.3 billion in 2015 to $17.9 billion by 2020. Purchases of optical DCI equipment are expected to grow from $1.03 billion in 2015 to $4.15 billion in 2020. The demand for speed and bandwidth between data centers, driven by streaming video, social networking, clouding computing and mobile commerce, is motivating mega-cloud data center operators to deploy high-density, low latency and low power DWDM links to connect multiple data centers within a distance of 80km of each other.

"The ability to provide high bandwidth connectivity in a small, cost effective form factor expands metro DCI options for the benefit of geo-distributed applications and workloads," said Timothy Doiron, principal analyst, Intelligent Networking practice at ACG. "In a recent study, we concluded that ColorZ lowered DCI total cost of ownership by up to 67% while also reducing rack space and power consumption."

"The current gap in the inter-data center interconnects is at the sub 80km segment, which is being supported by either lower speed 10G or higher power 100G metro solutions. ColorZ is the lowest power and most cost effective solution for DCI up to 80km," said Dr. Loi Nguyen, founder, senior vice president, Optical Interconnect at Inphi. "This is an important step in realizing our vision of 'The Cloud is the Network™'. The commercial availability and production ramp of ColorZ demonstrate Inphi's industry leadership, as we continue to create solutions that dramatically increase the speed of data movement while keeping the power and cost low."

OFC 2017 ColorZ Demonstration in Booth #3601
Live interoperability demonstration of ColorZ QSFP28 will consist of driving 3.6Tb/s of bi-directional East-West traffic over 80km of fiber between two Arista 7500R platform and 100G line card connected via AVDA Optical Networking's direct detect Open Line System (OLS) with SmartAmp™ technology. This demonstration will showcase the simplicity and plug and play capabilities of ColorZ while offering a compelling value proposition for edge data center connectivity.

Steve Penticost, vice president, Global Business Development, ADVA Optical Networking, added, "With the growing demands of connecting hyperscale data centers, there is a critical need for reach-specific optical solutions that have the right density, power and cost. Our joint demonstration with Inphi highlights how our ColorZ-optimized direct detect OLS with SmartAmp™ technology helps to move traffic between these data centers, while improving power and density."

ColorZ DWDM Platform Solution Key Features:

• QSFP28 form factor supporting 100G Ethernet
• Extended reach up to 80km
• Enables 4Tb/s capacity over a single fiber
• 4.5W power dissipation
• ITU wavelength grid compatible
• InphiNity™ Core DSP Engine with a unique mixed-mode DSP architecture for high performance, low power applications needing adaptability and configurability
• Multiple programmable FEC options with varying levels of pre-FEC BER performance
• Numerous self-test and loopback modes that allow diagnostic monitoring of channel and system parameters
• Eye-scan, samplers and monitors on all receiver interfaces for link margin and stress testing along with GUI and API routines for data and error analytics 

Come See Us at OFC 2017
Inphi is showcasing its latest next-generation products in booth #3601 at OFC 2017 in Los Angeles, CA on March 21-23, 2017.

About Inphi
Inphi Corporation is a leader in high-speed data movement interconnects. We move big data fast, throughout the globe, between data centers, and inside data centers. Inphi's expertise in signal integrity results in reliable data delivery, at high speeds, over a variety of distances. As data volumes ramp exponentially due to video streaming, social media, cloud-based services, and wireless infrastructure, the need for speed has never been greater. That's where we come in. Customers rely on Inphi's solutions to develop and build out the Service Provider and Cloud infrastructures, and data centers of tomorrow. To learn more about Inphi, visit www.inphi.com.

Inphi, the Inphi logo and Think fast are registered trademarks of Inphi Corporation. ColorZ is a trademark of Inphi Corporation. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.