Corning Incorporated has announced the availability of its high-speed MXC™ optical cable assembly to support Intel® Silicon Photonics. Intel’s breakthrough technology delivers optimum performance and energy efficiency within the data center. Corning’s innovative cabling solution is capable of sending up to 1.6 terabits per second of data at distances of up to 300 meters.

Every day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created with 90 percent of the world’s data created in the last two years alone. To support this tremendous surge in traffic, next-generation data centers will require full-optical connectivity – not just in the backbone and cross connects deployed in today’s data centers – but all the way to server ports which typically use copper, resulting in slower downlinks.

Using an MXC optical connector and Corning® ClearCurve® LX fiber, the optical cable assembly can transfer massive amounts of data up to 2.5 times faster than standard 10G Ethernet connections. In addition to unparalleled data capacity and fiber reach, ClearCurve LX fibers have one-fifth the bend radius when compared to standard fibers sold today, making them more flexible for routing through crowded server-switch-storage racks. 

“Corning has a long history of developing innovative fiber optic technology and we are excited about this launch,” said Clark Kinlin, executive vice president of Corning’s Optical Communications business. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Intel and other industry leaders to create high-speed, low-power, and cost-effective optical technologies that will have a transformative impact on cloud computing, big data and other applications that require robust data center technologies.”  

Intel Silicon Photonics devices are designed to be low-cost, fast, scalable and energy-efficient, providing extremely high bandwidth over longer distances than conventional electrical or optical solutions. The flexibility of Intel Silicon Photonics should enable data center designers to be more creative in how they architect the data center since they will no longer be encumbered by obstacles such as the distance between servers. Intel Silicon Photonics will also be used in traditional applications, such as Ethernet, top-of-rack connectivity, high performance computing, and storage. The introduction of the MXC cable assembly will help drive the commercial availability of Silicon Photonics.

“The MXC cable assembly is a great example of how collaboration can help drive the technology needed for future data centers,” said Dr. Mario Paniccia, director of Intel's Photonics Technology Lab. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Corning and with our other partners to bring it to the industry.”