Ensphere’s shipments of light peak transceiver chips exceeded 500k in 2011

SANTA CLARA, USA: Ensphere Solutions, an emerging leader in advanced communications semiconductor ICs, announced that the aggregate shipments of ESI-XVR10100 to multiple customers have exceeded 500k devices in 2011. This product is a dual 10G transceiver device intended for Light Peak optical modules. XVR10100 can also be used in ThunderboltTM active optical cables (AOCs).

Light Peak is the codename for an architecture developed by Intel Corporation. It is a new high-speed I/O technology able to support two independent full-duplex 10 Gbps links. It is intended for connecting laptop computers and a variety of other portable devices to peripherals such as external monitors and storage devices. It is a flexible and scalable technology and supports daisy chaining effectively reducing the number of system connectors.

Ensphere Solutions’ ESI-XVR10100 is the only integrated circuit (IC) needed in the optical module and can support up to two independent full-duplex 10 Gbps links. It is a monolithic device with a flexible architecture supporting out-of-band signaling, and various power management modes.

“One of our challenges has been to integrate two sets of 10G transmit and receive stages on a single CMOS die, and still meet stringent performance metrics,” said Hessam Mohajeri, Ensphere’s CEO. “A bigger challenge has been to meet extremely demanding price and power dissipation targets mandated by our customers.”

“Our product offering is far more than just a functional and cost effective chip. Ensphere’s true value add is its wealth of experience accumulated while working with its customers, partners, and PC OEMs,” said Al Gharakhanian, Ensphere’s VP of Marketing.

ESI-XVR10100 can also be utilized in ThunderboltTM active optical cables (AOCs). Active optical cables are cable assemblies that have electrical terminations on both ends but use optical fibers for data transport within the cable. The electrical-to-optical and optical-to-electrical conversions are done internally. ESI-XVR10100 is an ideal transceiver for this purpose.