News: Optoelectronics
2 March 2023
MACOM to demo 100G/lane optical link with linear drive interface at OFC
MACOM Technology Solutions Inc of Lowell, MA, USA (which designs and manufactures semiconductors, components and subassemblies for analog RF, microwave, millimeter-wave and photonic applications) is demonstrating its linear drive 100Gbps per lane optical links at the Optical Networking and Communications Conference (OFC 2023) in San Diego, CA, USA (5–9 March).
The live demonstration of the optical link, using MACOM PURE DRIVE trans-impedance amplifiers (TIAs) and laser drivers and Broadcom’s Tomahawk 5 switch chip, is taking place in MACOM’s booth #3927 and Broadcom’s booth #6425.
A linear drive architecture eliminates the digital signal processor (DSP) from pluggable optical modules while lowering power consumption, improving signal latency and reducing cost. With a linear drive link, the switch ASIC consolidates the digital signal processing while linear laser drivers and linear TIAs provide the compensation required for electro-optic conversion. This interoperability demonstration by Broadcom and MACOM leverages Broadcom’s Tomahawk 5 switch ASIC and MACOM PURE DRIVE laser drivers and TIAs.
“The MACOM PURE DRIVE chipset is specifically designed to provide leading high-performance linear compensation, enabling the linear drive architecture,” says Ryan Latchman, VP, High-Performance Connectivity product marketing.
“The optical networking industry has had a long tradition of optimizing interconnect to reduce latency, power and cost in order to service global needs,” says Peter Del Vecchio, data-center switch product manager, Core Switching Group, Broadcom. “This optimization becomes increasingly important for AI/ML clusters. Our collaboration with MACOM represents an important step in realizing this optimization at 100G/lane leveraging the Tomahawk 5 SerDes capability.”
