Microsoft and Facebook collaborate on co-packaged optics

Microsoft and Facebook have established a Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) Collaboration with the goal of encouraging common design elements for bridging optics and ASICs. The collaboration intends to provide open specifications for design elements, including the electrical signaling interface, optical standard, optical module management interface and reliability requirements. When complete, the open specifications will enable the industry to develop a...

Read More

OCP 2019: Edgecore debuts "Minipack" Switch for 100G and 400G

At OCP Summit 2019, Edgecore Networks introduced an open modular switch for 100G and 400G networking that conforms to the Minipack Fabric Switch design contributed by Facebook to the Open Compute Project (OCP). Minipack is a disaggregated whitebox system providing a flexible mix of 100GbE and 400GbE ports up to a system capacity of 12.8Tbps. The Minipack switch can support a mix of 100G and 400G Ethernet interfaces up to a maximum of 128x100G or...

Read More

OCP 2019: Netronome unveils 50GbE SmartNICs

Netronome unveiled its Agilio CX 50GbE SmartNICs in OCP Mezzanine 2.0 form factor with line-rate advanced cryptography and 2GB onboard DDR memory. The Agilio CX SmartNIC platform fully and transparently offloads virtual switch, virtual router, eBPF and P4-based datapath processing for networking functions such as overlays, security, load balancing and telemetry, enabling cloud and SDN-enabled compute and storage servers to free up critical server...

Read More

OCP 2019: Ixia and Marvell conduct 12.8Tbps 400GE test

Keysight Technologies announced a joint demonstration of Ixia’s AresOne-400 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) test system and the Marvell Prestera CX 8580 Ethernet switch. The Marvell Prestera CX 8580 switch, a 12.8Tbps, 256x 50G device, is part of a new family of switches from Marvell that offers workflow visibility and analytics with its Storage Aware Flow Engine (SAFE) technology and a reduction in network layers leveraging its high radix switch core technology...

Read More

OCP 2019: Inspur and Intel contribute 4-socket Crane Mountain design

Inspur and Intel will contribute a jointly-developed, cloud-optimized platform code named "Crane Mountain" to the OCP community. The four-socket platform is a high-density, flexible and powerful 2U server, validated for Intel Xeon (Cascade Lake) processors and optimized with Intel Optane DC persistent memory. Inspur said its NF8260M5 system is being used by Intel as a lead platform for introducing the “high-density cloud-optimized” four-socket server solution to the cloud service provider (CSP) market. At OCP Summit 2019, Inspur also showcased...

Read More

OCP 2019 video: Introducing Carrier Open Infrastructure

Bob Lamb of CBTS introduces Carrier Open Infrastructure (COI), which is reference architecture based on frameworks from the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), open source hardware from the Open Compute Project (OCP) and Open Source VNFs. CBTS said its goal is to help carriers leverage open source virtual networking functions (VNFs) and common, off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware to grow revenue as broadband speeds increase and average revenue per-subscriber (ARPU) declines. The COI architecture leverages the ONF's Central Office Redefined as a data...

Read More

OCP 2019: Toshiba tests NVM Express over Fabrics

At OCP Summit 2019, Toshiba Memory America demonstrated proof-of-concept native Ethernet NVMe-oF (NVM Express over Fabrics) SSDs. Toshiba Memory also showed its KumoScale software, which is a key NVMe-oF enabler for disaggregated storage cloud deployments. First introduced last year, Toshiba Memory has recently enhanced KumoScale’s capabilities with support for TCP-based network...

Read More

OCP 2019: Wiwynn intros Open19 server based on Project Olympus

At OCP 2019, Wiwynn introduced an Open19 server based on Microsoft’s Project Olympus server specification. The SV6100G3 is a 1U double wide brick server that complies with the LinkedIn led Open19 Project standard, which defines a cross-industry common form factor applicable to EIA 19” racks. With the Open19 defined brick servers, cages and snap-on cables, operators can blind mate both data and power connections to speed up rack deployment and enhance...

Read More

FCC seeks innovation in spectrum above 95 GHz

The FCC adopted new rules allowing for the development of new services in the spectrum above 95 GHz. Specifically, the FCC is creating a new category of experimental licenses for use of frequencies between 95 GHz and 3 THz. The goal is to give innovators the flexibility to conduct experiments lasting up to 10 years, and to more easily market equipment during the experimental period. The item also makes a total of 21.2 gigahertz of spectrum available...

Read More

CBRS milestone: Commscope and Google pass test

The Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) has given a passing grade to a Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) system developed by CommScope and Google. ITS, which is part of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), is the official test lab that has been tasked with confirming the performance of ESCs. CBRS provides 150 MHz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band in the U.S....

Read More