[Beowulf] [EXTERNAL] Re: anyone have modern interconnect metrics?

[Scott Atchley]

There is a lot of interest in lower-cost optics, but manufacturing costs
for the alternatives to today's active optical cables have not provided the
promised cost savings. Silicon photonics seems to be just a few years away
just as fusion is just a decade away.

On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 6:16 PM Lux, Jim (US 3370) via Beowulf <
beowulf at beowulf.org> wrote:

> To a certain extent, faster Ethernet is more likely to be a commodity –
> and at rates above 1 Gbps, there’s substantial “art” in making a PHY that
> works reliably.   At the 10G speed, there’s things like RapidIO and SRIO,
> but they
>
>    1. Only work for short distances (<<1 meter)
>    2. Are **very** board layout and other implementation sensitive.  Fine
>    for getting in and out of a package, but not great for running any distance.
>
> Then there’s XAUI (pronounced Zowie!) which is a multiwire wire interface
> between logic and 10G (or whatever) PHY.   But it’s got the same problems
> as SRIO/RapidIO (or for that matter, the venerable (now) TLK2711 SERDES).
>
>
>
> 10G and 40G Ethernet do actually work over distances of meters, and over
> some moderate range of temperatures, and are likely to meet EMI/EMC
> requirements.
>
>
>
> It is interesting that there doesn’t seem to be the same commercial
> pressure for optical versions. They all exist, but typically as modules
> you’d slide into your switch, not components you’d solder to a board.  And
> there are plenty of XAUI->optical kinds of interfaces.  And optical cables
> are cheap and relatively rugged.
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Beowulf <beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org> *On Behalf Of *Scott Atchley
> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 17, 2024 7:18 AM
> *To:* Larry Stewart <stewart at serissa.com>
> *Cc:* Mark Hahn <hahn at mcmaster.ca>; beowulf at beowulf.org
> *Subject:* [EXTERNAL] Re: [Beowulf] anyone have modern interconnect
> metrics?
>
>
>
> While I was at Myricom, the founder, Chuck Seitz, used to say that there
> was Ethernet and Ethernot. He tied Myricom's fate to Ethernet's 10G PHYs.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 9:08 AM Larry Stewart <stewart at serissa.com> wrote:
>
> I don't know what the networking technology of the future will be like,
> but it will be called Ethernet.
> - unknown (to me)
>
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