Credo, EFFECT Photonics to deliver merchant coherent DSPs, related chips
Semiconductor vendor Credo (NASDAQ:CRDO) and optical technology provider EFFECT Photonics have announced a partnership that will see the companies co-develop a line of coherent digital signal processors (DSP), along with associated high-speed SerDes, I/Os, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and digital-to-analog converters (DACs). The collaborators initially will focus on 100G ZR and 100G ZR+ applications.
Credo will manufacture and manage the sales and supply channels of the chips as well as provide design services and customer support. The companies say that the DSPs will benefit from Credo’s N-1 process technology to enable what they assert will be most cost-effective coherent DSPs available. The 100G ZR/ZR+ devices will be designed to fit into 5-W QSFP28 optical module and support reaches from 40 km (ZR) to 500 km (ZR+).
EFFECT Photonics acquired the DSP and forward error correction (FEC) IP on which the new line will be based from Viasat in March of last year (see “EFFECT Photonics gets into the merchant coherent technology game with assets from Viasat”). In addition to contributing to the merchant offerings, the company will continue to leverage the expertise for its own purposes, EFFECT Photonics CEO Roberto Marcoccia said at OFC 2023 in San Diego. He said the company expects to announce a 100G ZR module later this year.
Marcoccia expressed confidence that there will be a market for the DSP chipset. Alan Weckel, founder and technology analyst at 650 Group, appears to agree. “Merchant solutions will help drive down the cost, and with the installed base of 10G ports in excess of 13M ports, there is a significant installed base that needs to upgrade to 100G to support new applications and traffic patterns, plus potential new market opportunities that coherent DSPs can open up in service provider, cloud, and enterprise edge networks,” he commented via a Credo/EFFECT Photonics press release.
“Coherent technologies are gaining importance as they improve spectral efficiency and increase data throughput. Historically, coherent solutions have been mostly deployed for very long distances due to their high power and high cost,” added Scott Feller, vice president of marketing at Credo, via the same release. “Our first collaboration with EFFECT Photonics will allow us to deliver capabilities that fit into the power envelopes of the most commonly used transceivers at a competitive price, providing our large-volume customers with a refined solution that will seamlessly integrate into their existing access and edge infrastructure to address the dramatic bandwidth growth at the network edge.”
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.
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