I can say a few words about optical active cable (OAC) choices. The
current in production choice is from Intel, their Connects Cable. This is
are they shipping? I checked their website a couple weeks ago
and they were talking 1q08 availability.
speeds out to100m. A 25m cable is going to run you about $300 (US). Power
similar to Gore's one (which is copper I think).
Rumor has it that is is already in at least one HPC vendors interconnect
technology.
what does that mean? are there HPC vendors who don't just sell you anything,
including their sister, for a large enough customer? ;)
to me, I don't think this market is all that huge - there just aren't lots
of clusters with that kind of diameter, which means that long IB will be
a useful tool for adding a few uplinks/etc across a machineroom or
around the corner...
compete with each other. Of course, per media foot copper has always (?)
been more expensive that fiber.
sure - once >=10G optics become dirt cheap, everyone will toss a few onto
every motherboard ;)
hmm, I should patent an augmented 10G/IB optical tranceiver that makes
a cool blue glow when nothing's plugged in. or maybe when something is...
PS There some very good white papers and studies on both the Intel and
Luxtera web sites.
thanks, but whitepapers can't address the main (only) interesting issue:
whether it becomes mass-market-cheap...
thanks, mark hahn.
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