Multi-Gigabit Ethernet Week in Review: Microsoft, Chelsio, Innovium & More

By Maurice Nagle
Web Editor

Innovation in the cloud and the ushering in of our cloud-based era are tasking the network with a SaaSy reality. And with network demands on the rise, bandwidth is a key component to the solution. Far too many are stuck in a copper rut, but there are ways to bring life back to the network. Multi-gigabit Ethernet offers a modernization alternative, quick and painless to put in place, with the end result of a network capable of supporting the demands of today. And, with the weekend upon us, there’s no better time than the present to take a look at the week that was in multi-gigabit Ethernet: Time for the Week in Review!

The need for speed is a very real thing, and as of now it appears 400Gbps is the next milestone marker. Many companies hope to reach the 400Gpbs mark by 2020, but Innovium is eyeing 2017 with its Terlynx chip. CEO Rajiv Kheman noted, “Everybody wants high bandwidth and low latency, especially at the top of rack where the switch is a single point of failure inside of a rack of servers. If a top of rack goes down, that is 40 to 80 servers that are down, and that is a big pain point for them. So they want higher uptime, higher bandwidth, and lower latency as the traffic is traveling inside the datacenter and to customers. And the largest data centers want lower energy and they want simplicity and automation so they can lower operational expenses.” Find the full story HERE.

This week, Chelsio earned some new certifications; specifically, its Terminator 5 (T5) and Terminator 6 (T6) gigabit Ethernet iWARP-enable Unified Wire adapters garnered certifications in Windows Server 2016 as well as software-defined data center (SDDC) systems. TMC’s (News - Alert) Steve Anderson has everything you need to know HERE.

A recent industry event offered an interesting demonstration from Corning (News - Alert) Inc. and Kaiam Corp. The pairing performed a demonstration that converted high-speed signals to optical within a switch package, drastically reduceing chip interconnect power consumption. “This is not just a nice-to-have,” said Kaiam Vice President of Marketing Rob Kalman, “this will be a must-have a couple of Ethernet switch generations down the road. On-board optics such as COBO allow the industry to explore post-pluggable usage models but still require power-hungry electrical interfaces.” TMC’s Paula Bernier (News - Alert) brings you all the details HERE.

Also in the news this week, Cavium’s FastLinQ multi-gigabit Ethernet NICs earned Microsoft (News - Alert) certification for its Windows Server Software Defined Data Center Premium. The certification is the highest category Microsoft offers in this arena, and certainly opens the door for the FastLinQ suite of Ethernet adapters. Complete coverage is HERE.

Remember to stop by early and often for all things multi-gig Ethernet. See you next week!