The Si-Fly cable assembly from Samtec lets you mount connectors to a board while going under cooling components. High-speed digital ICs such as microprocessors, GPUs, ASICs, and electrical-to-optical converters need clean signals, and they generate lots of heat. To minimize the PCB traces where signals travel, engineers need to mount cables as close to the…
OFC 2025: AI, power, and 1.6T
San Francisco — At last year’s OFC 2024, the next speed of optical connections (1.6T) was all talk with one exception. In a back room, Keysight demonstrated a 1.6T optical link between an arbitrary waveform generator and a bit-error-rate tester. The demonstration was a transmission of raw, unstructured bits. One thing was clear, AI was…
OFC 2025: Interoperability demos
The Ethernet Alliance and Optical Internetworking Forum featured interoperability demonstrations at data rates up to 800 Gbps. San Francisco — With so many companies and products comprising the optical networking ecosystem, interoperability is paramount. All those semiconductors, optical modules, switches, routers, servers, test equipment, and the software that makes them function must first provide their…
DSL router uses parts from old phones
A consortium of companies found a clever way to recycle phone parts, showing how reusing electronics can improve sustainability. Electronic waste is a huge environmental problem of which disposed cell phones are a major contributor. Think about it, all that metal, plastic, and working semiconductors go into landfills. Some materials, such as gold from PCB…
What are the fiber options for 5G fronthaul?
Fiber is required to deliver low latency, which is crucial for a 5G fronthaul between the base station and the core network. Several fiber options can increase installation density and/or flexibility in this fronthaul. Common choices include bend-insensitive fiber (BIF), OM5 fiber, ultra-low-loss (ULL) fiber, and reduced-diameter fiber. Each offers different performance tradeoffs for specific…
Test Wi-Fi 6E and Ethernet with this handheld unit
Fluke Networks introduced the LinkIQ Duo Cable+WiFi+Network Tester, a handheld instrument that combines cabling qualification with Wi-Fi 6E network testing, eliminating the need for technicians to use multiple tools. The introduction of the LinkIQ Duo advanced Wi-Fi testing capabilities meets the challenges and requirements technicians face with the rapid adoption of Wi-Fi 6E. LinkIQ Duo…
Why AI chips need PCIe 7.0 IP interconnects
Today’s SoC designers need to design PCIe 7.0 into new AI chip designs. First-pass silicon success is critical to meet the increasing performance and bandwidth demands of data-intensive applications. Data center technologies need to evolve to enable AI’s increasing workload and demands, especially as the number of parameters doubles every four to six months —…
Co-packaged optics: higher data rates increase reliability risks
EE World discussed with GlobalFoundries’ Anthony Yu trends and tradeoffs in co-packaged optics and silicon photonics resulting from the rising data demand that AI thrusts upon us. It’s coming down to speed versus reliability, at least for now.
AI, silicon photonics push networks and test
EE World spoke with Sarah Boen, Director of Technology and ASIC Strategy at Tektronix, who spoke at a panel session on how AI and silicon photonics are changing networks and the challenges facing test engineers and reliability engineers. In OFC 2024: It’s AI or die, EE World reported on how the data generated by AI…
How coherent optical engines send and receive network data
By Paul Momtahan, Infinera Learn about the components inside a coherent optical engine, what they do, and how they use modulation to send and receive data. Optical communications over metro, long-haul, and submarine networks once used simple direct-detect technology. That’s no longer the case. Demand for higher-speed optical connections has brought on complex modulations and…