Active optical cables show growth

5/4/2010 11:30 AM EDT

Information Gatekeepers, in its latest market report, said that most of the performance gains with AOCs are found first with InfiniBand cables in high-performaance computing (HPC) installations. These are the first to achieve 40 Gb/s per cable, and are poised to reach up to 120 Gb/s thanks to 12-lane designs expected in the coming years.

New designs starting in late 2009 as well as designs expected through 2010 will create a strong increase in AOC sales in 2011-12, with slightly more modest increases in the subsequent two years covered in this report.

One technology covered is Light Peak, the new Intel optical initiative announced at their San Francisco Developers Forum in September and supported by Sony.

Should Intel prove successful in driving their Light Peak to volume markets, it could easily have great impact on overall AOC cost structures due to greatly increased economies of scale.

Agreed. Intel involvement always makes it an interesting market.