Compass-EOS Introduces the World's First Direct Silicon-to-Photonics-Based Router Family

MILPITAS, Calif. & NETANYA, Israel --(Business Wire)--

Compass-EOS today announced the availability of the r10004, the first in a family of next-generation, core-grade modular routers designed to dramatically increase network capacity and speed. The r10004 is powered by icPhotonics, a technology developed by Compass (News - Alert)-EOS that is the world's first commercial chip-to-chip direct silicon-to-photonics implementation.

The Compass-EOS silicon photonics chip. (Photo: Business Wire)

Compass-EOS' patent-protected technology integrates optical and electronic components onto a single microchip. This represents a cross-disciplinary achievement which has been pursued by industry giants for years without success. It has long been accepted that direct silicon-to-photonics technology would be a required breakthrough to achieve order-of-magnitude Internet speed increases.

Compass-EOS' icPhotonics optical interconnect fundamentally changes the way routers are built, and represents the technological foundation required for petabit networking. The resulting high capacity r10004 router simplifies the deployment, operation, and scaling of service provider networks. Each r10004 can serve as a modular router building block for the deployment of scale-out routing, enabling software-defined networking (SN) and other approaches such as network function virtualization (NFV).

Compass-EOS has deployed r10004 routers at customer locations around the world. Examples include a Japan-based voice, internet and cable provider that uses the routers at the termination points of its transpacific high capacity network, providing a vital link between North America and APAC; and a US-based media and technology company that has deployed the r10004 for high-bandwidth connectivity between data centers of a global content delivery network (CDN).

The first commercially available Compass-EOS router offers many benefits for service providers:

High capacity at dramatically lower footprint and power consumption
Pay-as-you-grow scalability
Guaranteed quality of service (QoS) at high utilization rates
Maximum router protection from DDoS attacks at maximum capacity
Designed for SDN from day one, enabling network virtualization
Unmatched levels of congestion-free multicast traffic

"Addressing the electronic interconnect barrier through a technology like photonics is essential in keeping Moore's Law on track," said Vernon Turner, Senior Vice President at IDC (News - Alert). "Silicon photonics is still in the research phase of product life cycles, but Compass-EOS has emerged from stealth mode with this offering, thus giving them a clear lead in the race to eliminate network bottlenecks - something that should greatly interest service providers."

"A major concern for service providers today is how to scale their networks while simplifying operations and improving utilization. We set out to address that concern by building a new breed of routers," said Gadi Bahat, CEO of Compass-EOS. "Our revolutionary router design built on icPhotonics simplifies the network, brings about cost savings, moves service providers toward SDN and network virtualization, and allows for better utilization."

The r10004 is three times smaller than comparable core routers and supports a mix of 100GbE and 10GbE ports. The carrier-grade r10004 router has been shipping since late 2012 and is available globally.

In its six years of operation, Compass-EOS has attracted strategic investors including Comcast (News - Alert) Ventures, T-Ventures, and Cisco Systems, and top venture capital firms such as Pitango Venture Capital, Benchmark Capital, Northbridge Venture Partners and Crescent Point.

About Compass-EOS

Compass-EOS radically changes network routing by shifting it into the age of silicon photonics. The Compass-EOS icPhotonics technology is the world's first commercial silicon for inter-chip optical interconnect, unleashing the next revolution in routing architectures. Its family of carrier-grade routers is a new breed of scale-out routers, enabling SDN-based, simplified architectures in service provider networks. Since 2006 Compass has attracted top-tier investors ranging from leading venture capital funds to service providers and core routing suppliers. Contact us at: info@compass-eos.com

Note: Compass-EOS, r10004 and icPhotonics are trademarks of Compass-EOS.