The world’s first optical modules compliant with Consortium for On-Board Optics (COBO) will be shown at next week’s ECOC Exhibition 2018 in Rome, Italy.
Specifically, COBO will present a showcase of solutions from Molex, Ciena and SENKO, TE Connectivity, Credo, and AOI.
A goal of COBO is to bring interoperable and interchangeable optical modules into the manufacturing of networking equipment to help address industry challenges, including continual traffic growth, the need for lower power consumption and the increasing speeds of networking technologies such as 400 Gigabit Ethernet.
“Next-generation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, 5G, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are progressing at a rapid rate and all stand to benefit from equipment manufacturers’ adoption of on-board optics,” said Brad Booth, President of COBO. “The data produced by these applications needs to move efficiently and rapidly between devices and the demonstrations not only represent a significant step forward in achieving this through board-mounted optical modules but also a big step towards mass deployment of interoperable solutions.”
Some highlights:
- Molex will display a COBO module-based reference layout board that includes high-density front panel Optical EMI shielding adapters, a blind-mate optical backplane interconnect and an on-card optical cabling featuring FlexPlane technology. The demo will highlight how system vendors can utilize Molex optical cable management technologies to integrate COBO on-board optical modules into next-generation system architectures.
- Ciena and SENKO will show how low-profile face plate connector solutions can enhance the air flow capability and fiber management inside equipment, which will include the CS Connector, a new high-density solution, MPO PLUS Bayonet, and μ-LC that can create more space inside the equipment. In addition, two white papers will be available. The first looks at Data Center Interconnect traffic growth and how this drives the need for increased electrical high-speed signaling, best in-class layout and selection of printed circuit board laminate, where analysis is made of different material properties in the context of COBO applications and verification is made of the compliance to OIF CEI-56G-VSR-PAM4. The second study performs a thermal assessment including the coherent application in context to verify thermal capabilities of the COBO module for 14.4Tb/s capacity 1RU line card.
- A 112Gbps demonstration will be performed jointly by TE Connectivity and Credo via a test set-up that provides a feasibility demonstration for future COBO applications using 100Gbps electrical lanes based on TE Connectivity’s channel and high-speed connector driven by Credo Semiconductor transceiver silicon.
- AOI will exhibit a 400G 16 lane on-board optics device that can achieve 2km reach at 1310nm wavelength. It leverages the COBO form factor, electrical pin out and electrical connector specifications released earlier this year. AOI is taking advantage of the SiP technology for this compact device which has a highly integrated design for an on-board optics module.
COBO – Stand 608 at ECOC Exhibition 2018
Filmed at NetEvents 2018 in San Jose, California
A look at COBO and the drive for on-board optics
The Consortium for On-Board Optics (COBO) was formed three years ago to develop specifications to permit the use of board-mounted optical modules in the manufacturing of networking equipment, such as switches and even servers. The specifications will cover electrical interfaces, pin-outs, connectors, thermals, etc. The idea is to drive the development of interchangeable and interoperable optical modules that can be mounted onto motherboards…
