A parallel optical interface is a form of
fiber optic
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...
technology aimed primarily at
communications
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
and
networking over relatively short distances (less than 300 meters), and at high
bandwidths.
Parallel optic interfaces differ from traditional
fiber optic communication
Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared light through an optical fiber. The light is a form of carrier wave that is modulated to carry information. Fiber is pre ...
in that data is simultaneously transmitted and received over multiple fibers. Different methods exist for splitting the data over this high bandwidth link. In the simplest form, the
parallel
Parallel is a geometric term of location which may refer to:
Computing
* Parallel algorithm
* Parallel computing
* Parallel metaheuristic
* Parallel (software), a UNIX utility for running programs in parallel
* Parallel Sysplex, a cluster of ...
optic link is a replacement for many
serial data communication links. In the more typical application, one byte of information is split up into bits and each bit is coded and sent across the individual fibers. Needless to say, there are many ways to perform this
multiplexing
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
provided the fundamental coding at the fiber level meets the channel requirement.
The main applications for parallel optical interfaces are found in
telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
and
supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...
s, also being introduced to consumer applications.
It displaces copper
backplane
A backplane (or "backplane system") is a group of electrical connectors in parallel with each other, so that each pin of each connector is linked to the same relative pin of all the other connectors, forming a computer bus. It is used as a backbo ...
s that are commonly used for large switching equipment design.
There are two forms of commercially available products for parallel optic interfaces. The first is a twelve channel system consisting of an
optical transmitter and an
optical receiver
Photodetectors, also called photosensors, are sensors of light or other electromagnetic radiation. There is a wide variety of photodetectors which may be classified by mechanism of detection, such as photoelectric or photochemical effects, or ...
. The second is a four channel
transceiver
In radio communication, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio ''trans''mitter and a re''ceiver'', hence the name. It can both transmit and receive radio waves using an antenna, for communication purposes. The ...
product that is capable of transmitting four channels and receiving four channels in one product.
Parallel optics is often the most cost effective solution for getting 40
Gigabit per second
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...
transmission of data over distances exceeding 100 meters. 100GE Optical Transceiver comes with 100 Gigabit of data transmit. Data is delivered in both duplex and parallel mechanism with 100GE.
See also
*
Thunderbolt (interface)
Thunderbolt is the brand name of a Interface (computing)#Hardware interfaces, hardware interface for the connection of external peripherals to a computer. It has been developed by Intel, in collaboration with Apple Inc., Apple. It was initially ...
*
Interconnect bottleneck
The interconnect bottleneck comprises limits on integrated circuit (IC) performance due to connections between components instead of their internal speed.
In 2006 it was predicted to be a "looming crisis" by 2010.
Improved performance of compute ...
*
Optical fiber cable
A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable, but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with ...
*
Optical communication
References
Fiber-optic communications
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