Preparing for a post-pluggable optical module world
Sunday, October 31, 2021 at 2:44PM Part 1: OIF: ELSFP, XSR+, and CEI-112G-Linear
The OIF is working on several electrical and optical specifications as the industry looks beyond pluggable optical transceivers.
One initiative is to specify the external laser source used for co-packaged optics, dubbed the External Laser Small Form Factor Pluggable (ELSFP) project.
Nathan Tracy
Industry interest in co-packaged optics, combining an ASIC and optical chiplets in one package, is growing as it becomes increasingly challenging and costly to route high-speed electrical signals between a high-capacity Ethernet switch chip and the pluggable optics on the platform’s faceplate.
The OIF is also developing 112-gigabit electrical interfaces to address not just co-packaged optics but also near package optics and the interface needs of servers and graphics processor units (GPUs).
Near package optics also surrounds the ASIC with optical chiplets. But unlike co-packaged optics, the ASIC and chiplets are placed on a high-performance substrate located on the host board.
