Contact Information: MEDIA CONTACT: Victoria McDonald Finisar Corporation (408) 542-4261 victoria.mcdonald@finisar.com
Finisar Accelerates 10G Ethernet Server Connectivity With the Introduction of Laserwire(TM), an Active Optical Cable Family
Fiber Optic Market Leader Demonstrates New Interconnect Technology for High-Performance Computing Applications at Supercomputing 2007
| Source: Finisar
SUNNYVALE, CA and RENO, NV--(Marketwire - November 12, 2007) - Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ : FNSR ), a technology leader in fiber optic solutions for high-speed
networks, today announced the industry's first serial 10 Gbps active
optical cable family designed to accelerate and support 10G Ethernet server
connectivity. The Laserwire™ family consists of the Laserwire cable, a
high density electrical connector and 10G Ethernet adapter modules to
facilitate adoption into legacy transceiver ports. Laserwire utilizes fiber
optic technology for the transmission of data while reducing the weight,
density and power consumption of copper wire. Finisar will demonstrate
this new platform with industry leaders Chelsio, Force10, Fujitsu Computer
Products of America, Myricom, NetEffect, Neterion, and NetXen at
Supercomputing 2007 in Reno, Nevada, November 13-15, Booth #2818.
The Burden of Copper
Today, supercomputing clusters are hampered by the physical burdens of CX-4
copper cable. In addition to being large, heavy, power hungry and
expensive, copper cable is limited to short distance connections, as data
integrity deteriorates over long distances.
By comparison, the Laserwire cable assembly is a fiber optic cable so it is
small, light, and much lower in power consumption. The fiber optic cable
also allows a smaller bend radius, thus providing greater flexibility
during the installation of computer clusters. The Laserwire electrical
connector was specifically developed for high density applications and can
support large cluster configurations, including 48 port 1U switches. The
connector can also be mounted in space-constrained LOM (LAN on motherboard)
designs.
"As 10 Gig servers become more prevalent in the data center, power and 10
Gig interconnect cost became a significant challenge, as does connecting
these servers in a way that allows organizations to optimize their
computing power," said Stephen Garrison, vice president of marketing at
Force10 Networks, one of the participants in the Laserwire demonstration at
Supercomputing 07. "The Force10 S2410 provides high density 10 Gigabit
Ethernet connectivity that enables organizations to directly connect to 10
Gig servers while Laserwire delivers the low power and low cost 'plug and
play' interconnect that organizations need to efficiently utilize increased
computing resources."
Laserwire significantly reduces power in datacenter applications. When
compared with 10GBase-T solutions, Laserwire consumes nearly 95% less
power, resulting in lower heat dissipation and reduced cooling
requirements.
In addition to the Laserwire cable and connector, the family will include
transceiver adapter modules that will enable Laserwire to plug into
traditional optical transceiver ports. This will allow system builders and
data centers to use Laserwire in legacy systems for 10GbE connectivity.
"The Server Connectivity transition to 10GbE is still in its early stages
with most 10GbE NICs shipped into midrange and high end Unix servers,
networked storage systems and HPC applications," said Bob Wheeler, Senior
Analyst with The Linley Group. "With the move of 10GbE into high volume
server platforms, users need Laserwire to provide a viable interconnect
solution to address the current copper issues of port density, power
consumption and cost."
"Laserwire is the answer to many of the physical challenges plaguing
high-performance supercomputing clusters today," said Jan Meise, director
of strategic marketing at Finisar. "By incorporating Finisar's two decades
of expertise in the fiber optics industry, we have been able to develop a
product that directly addresses end-user concerns to provide a lower cost,
more power efficient alternative to copper cable. Additionally, we see
Laserwire as having various practical applications beyond High Performance
Computing, including Enterprise data centers, video, consumer and
industrial applications."
Finisar expects to see first HPC installations with components of the
Laserwire family in 2008. For more information contact a Finisar Solution
Expert at 1-408-548-1000, send email to laserwire@finisar.com or, visit
www.finisar.com/laserwire.
About Finisar
Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ : FNSR ) is a global technology leader for fiber
optic components and subsystems and network test and monitoring systems.
These products enable high-speed voice, video and data communications for
networking, storage and wireless applications over Local Area Networks
(LANs), Storage Area Networks (SANs), and Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs)
using Ethernet, Fibre Channel, IP, SAS, SATA and SONET/SDH protocols. The
Company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA. More information
can be found at www.finisar.com.
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