SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - November 15, 2010) - AlpenIO, developing the next generation optical interconnect technology, announced today, at SC10, new optical technology and four new optical products. AlpenIO's new cable assemblies are based on its proprietary LightFinity optical technology. The miniature, low power, low cost design results in a very small form factor. "Our patented design using passive alignment and pre-aligned V-Grooves is a pivotal innovation to simplify fiber attachment," says Marc Verdiell, President & CEO. AlpenIO offers ready to use LightFinity optical engines for integration into cable assemblies. The completion of an AOC cable requires only the gluing of the fibers and the addition of a shell. LightFinity optical engines are also designed to be mounted onto PCB boards.

QSFP Active Optical Cable, LightFlash4. The LightFlash4 supports Infiniband data rates up to FDR as well as 40GbE. A key design feature is low power consumption, typically 750mW per end. Power consumption as low as 600mW per end has been demonstrated. This improves thermal efficiency and reduces power consumption in the data center. Compliant with the QSFP MSA specification, the cables are ideally suited for HPC clusters and high density interconnect topologies up to 100 meters.

Gen2 PCI Express x4 Active Optical Cable, LightXpress4. AlpenIO introduced the first PCI Express active optical cable early in 2010. "We are pleased to offer a leading edge optical cable solution in the PCIe segment that supports both Gen1 and Gen2 signaling up to distances of 300 meters," said Mr. Verdiell. An important design feature is the ability to transmit the auxiliary sideband signals over fiber. "Our cable technology is also capable of supporting the emerging Gen3 data rates up to100 meters which represents a 2x improvement in performance over Gen2." The cables are plug compatible with the standard external cabling PCIe connector.

Miniature, low power, low cost, parallel optical engine, LightFinity-P. The LightFinity-P proprietary optical engine technology is offered in a fully engineered paddleboard sub assembly. This approach enables easy transition from copper to optical fiber for cable producers. The LightFinity optical engine is manufactured on FR-4 PCB. "Our goal with LightFinity-P is to be an enabler for fiber optical cable manufacturers by providing cost effective, simplified manufacturing transition to optical technology," said Mr. Verdiell. No expensive or complicated fiber alignment equipment is required.

LightFinity-S, the surface mount ceramic version with a fiber pigtail, is designed to be mounted onto PCB boards via a low profile LGA socket. The compact form factor, 16mm X 16mm X 2.92mm (LxWxH) offers miniaturization beyond even CMOS silicon photonics based transceivers. Typical applications include Chip to Chip interconnect, Backplane interconnect or Fiber Channel optical interfaces.