Thursday, September 13, 2007

SyntheSys Offers BERTScope with Jitter Analysis Covering 80 MHz

SyntheSys Research introduced a new BERTScope Digital Communications Receiver with Jitter Analysis (DCRj) for telecom applications and developers of XFP and SFP+ transceivers.



The DCRj, which is capable of showing the full 80 MHz spectrum, is a standalone jitter measurement solution with built-in compliant clock recovery that also provides OC-192/STM-64 and 10GbE reference receiver capability to the BERTScope series of analyzers and third-party instruments used for transmitter compliance.



The DCRj has an amplified receiver for testing single-mode or multimode transmitters. The DCRj also provides an electrical input to enable jitter spectral analysis on electrical signals.



SyntheSys said that while the majority of the optical or electrical signal is passed through to provide an electrical output for other test instrumentation, a small portion is used to drive a standards-compliant, flexible clock recovery. As well as providing the correct loop bandwidths for transmitter measurements, such as the 4 MHz loop bandwidth called for by SONET, the DCRj also provides the engine for one of the most sensitive jitter generation measurements available. The benefit is that test devices may be checked for compliance to standards, and the same measurements can be used for performance enhancement and troubleshooting efforts through the >80 MHz jitter spectrum measurement.

http://www.bertscope.com

Equinix Completes Acquisition of IXEurope, Raises Guidance

Equinix completed its previously-announced acquisition of IXEurope Plc, which operates 14 data centers across Europe. IXEurope's 14 data centers comprise more than 380,000 square feet of net sellable space throughout Europe, including centers in London, Zurich, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Dusseldorf and Geneva. The company serves more than 450 enterprise and Internet customers, including Merrill Lynch, Avis Europe, Deutsche Boerse, Citigroup, Rackspace and SurfControl.



Equinix will integrate IXEurope's network-neutral data center business and operations under the Equinix brand. The current IXEurope management team, including Guy Willner, IXEurope CEO, and Christophe de Buchet, IXEurope COO, will join Equinix and continue to operate the European business from the IXEurope London headquarters, which will now serve as Equinix's European regional headquarters.



Under the terms of the acquisition, IXEurope shareholders will receive 140 British pence in cash for each IXEurope share, payable on September 28, 2007, valuing the share capital of IXEurope, on a fully diluted basis, at approximately GBP 270.1 million or approximately $550 million plus the assumption of debt (based on exchange rates on September 13, 2007).



Separately, Equinix raised its financial guidance. For the third quarter of 2007, revenues are now expected to be in the range of $101.0 to $102.0 million, including approximately $4.0 million from Europe. Cash gross margins are expected to be approximately 61%. EBITDA for the third quarter is expected to be between $38.0 and $39.0 million, including approximately $500,000 from Europe. Capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $105.0 to $110.0 million, including approximately $5.0 million of capital expenditures in Europe.



For the full year of 2007, total revenues are expected to be in the range of $413.0 to $415.0 million, including approximately $37.0 million anticipated from Europe. Total year cash gross margins are expected to be approximately 62%, including approximately $6.9 million of net cash costs attributed to its expansion IBXs. EBITDA for the year is expected to be between $149.0 and $151.0 million, including approximately $5.0 million anticipated from Europe. Capital expenditures for 2007 are expected to be $405.0 to $415.0 million, including approximately $40.0 million of ongoing capital expenditures and approximately $25.0 million of capital expenditures related to Europe. Expansion capital expenditures are for the build outs of the Frankfurt, London, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. expansions opened this year, as well as the announced expansions in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Silicon Valley and Washington D.C. metro areas. As previously announced, Equinix acquired two properties in 2007 for approximately $115.0 million.

http://www.equinix.com

ITU Focuses on Connect "Africa" Initiative

This week the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is hosting a series of events at U.N. headquarters in New York aimed at building support for the "Connect Africa Initiative", whose mission is to bridge major gaps in ICT infrastructure in Africa with the aim of supporting affordable connectivity, applications and services.



Connect Africa aims to promote the private sector investment required for sustainable network infrastructure development. It is designed to build on current public and private ICT projects by targeting major gaps, mobilizing resources and enhancing coordination in support of national and regional activities.



This week's meetings are being chaired by Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Development and Walter Fust, Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

http://www.itu.int

NeoPhotonics Unveils "Ultra" Tunable Laser covering 200 Wavelengths

NeoPhotonics unveiled a new tunable laser that can be tuned to any of 200 wavelengths and is suitable for metro, long-haul and ultra long-haul DWDM networks with data rates from 2.5G to 40 Gbps.

NeoPhotonics' new ultra widely tunable NTL2000 laser features an 80 nm tuning range, enabling it to transmit virtually the same output waveform at every frequency in the C-band, L-band, extended L-band (XL-band), or both C+L bands (tuning over 80 nm with channel spacing based on the ITU-T specified 50 GHz grid).

NeoPhotonics said its NTL2000 laser can address all commonly used wavelengths in DWDM systems and essentially do the work of any of 200 single wavelength lasers. As a result, it reduces the complexity and cost of systems design and lowers the cost of sparing and inventory management for both network equipment manufacturers and their network operator customers. An ultra-wide tuning range plus adjustable optical power makes the NeoPhotonics ITLA (integratable tuner laser assembly) product a "universal DWDM laser" for most optical transport applications.


The NeoPhotonics design uses a continuous wave (CW) external cavity laser delivering high spectral purity with low RIN, low SMSR and narrow line width. The output power is adjustable with standard outputs of 10mW and 20mW. It has fast wavelength tuning to meet the standards for SONET/SDH and DWDM protection switching, dynamically reconfigurable networks and remote provisioning and testing.

http://www.neophotonics.com

Opnext Releases XENPAK 10G LRM Modules

Opnext announced the release of a second form-factor in its 10G LRM optical pluggable module family.



Opnext said the modules offer very low power consumption, superior transmission characteristics and high temperature performance for enterprise and campus networks which want to upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

http://www.opnext.com

Xilinx Opens Regional Headquarters Building In Singapore

Xilinx opened a new, expanded regional headquarters in Singapore. Located in the Changi Business Park, the new 20,000 square meter Xilinx Asia Pacific (XAP) headquarters can house up to 500 employees, providing four times the capacity of its previous on-site manufacturing facility and three times the in-house process development resources.
http://www.xilinx.com

Gemfire Raises $37 Million for Integrated Photonics

Gemfire, a start-up based in Fremont, California with manufacturing in Scotland, raised $37 million in funding for its integrated photonics sub-systems and planar lightwave circuits for telecom and defense related applications.



The Gemfire "PhotonIC" planar technology platform enables wafer-scale processing to produce optical components, such as VMUXs, Athermal and standard AWGs, TODCs, and VOAs. Gemfire has been shipping its Telcordia qualified products to dozens of top tier optical system companies all over the world since 2003.



The company noted that the funding round was expanded to more than double the face value of the offering to accommodate the interest level of several new investors. In addition to the participation of previous investors, the new investor group, led by Loudwater Partners, included Centaurus Capital, Uberior Equity Ltd., and Palo Alto Investors. ThinkEquity Partners, acted as the exclusive placement agent for the offering.

http://www.gemfire.com