JDS Uniphase adjusts to meet changing market
In response to the telecom market's change in focus from the network core to the network edge, JDS Uniphase (San Jose, CA, and Ottawa, Canada) has launched a new range of components, modules, and test instruments that reflect the greater emphasis on reducing costs for network equipment and operation, utilization and upgrade of existing systems, and movement toward the network edge. The majority of the company's new products are targeted for enterprise and storage, metro core/regional, and access/aggregation applications. In addition, the majority of new products are transmission components and modules, reflecting the move from building new systems to increasing utilization in current networks.
Picolight and IBM team up on bandwidth
Picolight (Boulder, CO) and IBM (Armonk, NY) have demonstrated a technology that they say sets a new standard for bandwidth density of data transmission between servers, routers, switches, and crossconnect equipment. The thumb-sized SNAP12 modules operate at a full 10 Gbit/s per channel over standard 12-fiber ribbon to more than triple the performance of current 12-channel transmit/receive modules. Picolight and IBM's parallel optical interconnect technology solves the critical backplane bottleneck in high-throughput systems currently used in enterprise and storage-area networks, points of presence, central offices, large data centers, and wide-area network hubs. The technology could allow processors to be more tightly coupled, making server architectures more flexible and allowing servers to better handle varying workloads. The joint technology combines 12 × 10 Gbit/s parallel optics from Picolight and IBM's 12-channel laser driver integrated circuit (IC) to achieve more than 120 Gbit/s of aggregate interconnect capacity across existing fiber, enabling seamless upgrades to existing systems.
Oki and Fujikura launch joint venture
Oki Electric Industry Co. (Tokyo, Japan) and Fujikura (Chiba, Japan) have established a new company, OF Networks, in Japan to enhance their business partnership in the optical communications business and integrate each company's strengths for the broadband network market. Oki boasts expertise in key technologies for broadband, including optical access, wavelength division multiplexing and ultra high-speed optical modulation, while Fujikura is strong in optical fiber and passive optical components and optical access technology. OF Networks will focus on broadband access equipment, including a gigabit passive optical network, gigabit Media Converter, VDSL equipment, and access routers. In related news, Sigma-Links, a company jointly established by Oki and Fujikura in 2001 to develop, manufacture, and sell small-form-factor optical transceivers, has taken over Oki's optical interface module business.
Lockheed Martin to supply transceivers for Joint Strike Fighter
The Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Tactical Systems business (Eagan, MN) of Lockheed Martin (Bethesda, MD) has received a $9.2 million contract from Harris (Melbourne, FL) to deliver fiberoptic transceivers for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. The transceivers are a critical component of the JSF mission system, linking the system's electronic processing and fiberoptic network. The F-35 JSF mission system relies upon fiber optics to share data between the various subsystems in near real time. Harris is under contract to Northrop Grumman to provide common components for the JSF's conventional and short take-off vertical landing variants. The Tactical Systems group will deliver large- and small-form-factor transceivers to Harris by August. Tactical Systems is also responsible for the integrated core processor, which is the aircraft's central computer system.
Also in the news . . .
ADVA Optical Networking (Martinsried/Munich, Germany) has won an additional three-year contract from British Telecom (London, England) for its Fiber Service Platform (FSP) 500 systems. This contract extends a previous four-year deal, during which time BT standardized the FSP 500 as its multiprotocol platform for deployment of all local-area network extension services. . . . Vtesse Networks (Hertford, England) and Hitachi Data Systems (Santa Clara, CA), with the support of Transmode Systems AB (Stockholm, Sweden) and Nishan Systems (San Jose, CA), have demonstrated a representative synchronous storage-area-network application over a range of link lengths up to 600 km. According to the companies, this is six times further than was previously thought possible for a data application to be synchronously transmitted over a fiber-channel link.