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According to a new report from Communications Industry Researchers, sales of active optical cables (AOCs) for the data center will produce $1.5 billion in revenues by 2019.

Charlottesville, VA, USA (June 27, 2014) — According to a new report from Communications Industry Researchers, sales of active optical cables (AOCs) for the data center will produce $1.5 billion in revenues by 2019. The report “Active Optical Cable Markets – Data Center Applications,” is part of a two-volume set. CIR has also recently published an analysis and forecast of the market for AOCs for applications in personal computing, consumer electronics and digital signage.

More details about this report can be found at: http://www.cir-inc.com/reports/active-optical-cable-markets-and-opportunities-2014-to-2024-volume-i-data-c.

About the report:

This report identifies and quantifies opportunities for selling AOCs for the data center. AOCs in this sector carry Ethernet, InfiniBand (IB), Fibre Channel and SAS. Specifically, the report provides coverage on AOCs supporting the CX4, SFP/SFP+, QSFP, CXP, CFP, CDFP, and SAS/Min-SAS MSAs. In addition, the report provides detailed nine-year forecasts of data center AOC markets, with breakouts by end-user application, interface standard, cable lengths, type of cable and wavelength. Forecasts are provided in units shipped and revenue terms.

This new CIR study also assesses the product/market strategies of the leading AOC suppliers including: 3M, 10GTEK, A3CUBE, Amphenol, Avago, Brocade, Centera Photonics, ConnPro, Eoptolink, FCI, Fiberon, Finisar, Fujikura, Gigalight, Fujitsu, Hitachi Cable, IBM, InnoLight, JDSU, Juniper Networks, Luxtera, Mellanox, Molex, Multilane, Samtec, Siemon, Sopto, Sumitomo, TE Connectivity, Volex.

From the report:

Data centers are getting bigger and are requiring much higher data-rate pipes and interconnects than ever before. Mobile broadband and video applications are flooding data centers with content and this creates a growing incentive to shift to fiber in at least part of the data center. It is becoming increasingly difficult for data center managers to avoid fiber optics and at the same time AOCs offer an excellent entry point for fiber optics to all but the most structured-cabling savvy network managers.

Chinese AOC suppliers are showing that they can compete with the best U.S., European and Japanese AOC suppliers. They are now able to supply 40 Gbps cables with ease and a few are offering 100-Gbps AOCs. A few years back CIR would have seen the whole optical engine concept as beyond the capabilities of Chinese suppliers. But today Gigalight is using optical engines as the basis for its optical data center products, and other Chinese firms are expected to follow suit.

The Chinese AOC challenge will require a strategic response from established AOC firms. This could take the form of better branding, improved supply chains or upgraded products. For example, the TE Connectivity line was upgraded in 2011 with 40-Gbps products that offered reduced power consumption and lighter-weight cables and other leading AOC firms will follow suit.

We also expect to see more activity in AOCs that use the highest-performance modules. Such AOCs are not easy to make and this presents barriers to entry into the data center markets for smaller, less able AOC firms; providing market protection for the largest suppliers. The markets for such high-end AOCs are also not inconsiderable. CFP and CDFP together are expected to generate $190 million in revenues by 2019. Indeed, we think that the proverbial “next big thing” in the AOC space will be CDFP AOCs and expect to see such products prominently displayed at the OFC, ECOC and SC trade shows in 2015. For now, the three companies to watch in this space are Finisar, Molex and TE Connectivity, all of which have already introduced CDFP AOCs.

Nonetheless, throughout the period considered in this report, the “workhorse” QSFP and CXP AOCs will be the biggest revenue earners, with combined sales of $1.3 billion in 2019. These MSAs support both the Ethernet and IB protocols that are core to any data center and at data rates that are likely to be the ones most used in data centers over the next decade. The earliest QSFP AOCs catered to the 10-Gbps market, but the QSFP AOC business is now centered around the 40-Gbps opportunity. CXP can support 100 GigE or three 40-GigE channels. At this point almost every firm offering a range of AOCs includes CXP options.

About CIR:

Communications Industry Researchers has been publishing hype-free industry analysis for the optical networking industry for almost 25 years. We have provided market coverage of Active Optical Cables (AOCs) for six years. Our annual reports on this topic are widely regarded as the most authoritative market forecast and technology assessment in the AOC space.

Visit http://www.cir-inc.com for a full listing of CIR’s reports and other services.

Media Contact:
Robert Nolan
Ilumatech
5330 Twin Hickory Rd
Glen Allen, Virginia 23059
(804) 938-0030
rob@ilumatech.com

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According to a newly released report from industry analyst firm CIR, the addressable market for chip-level optical interconnects could eventually run into billions of units and revenues in this market will total almost $520 million by 2019 going on to reach $1.02 billion by 2021.

Charlottesville, VA, USA (October 7, 2013) — According to a newly released report from industry analyst firm CIR, the addressable market for chip-level optical interconnects could eventually run into billions of units and revenues in this market will total almost $520 million by 2019 going on to reach $1.02 billion by 2021. The new report is titled “Revenue Opportunities for Optical Interconnects: Market and Technology Forecast – 2013 to 2020 Volume II: On-Chip and Chip-to-Chip” and continues the firm’s coverage of this market dating back to 2009.

Further details of the report are available at http://www.cir-inc.com/reports/current-reports/oicvii/.

The report covers four kinds of chip-level interconnect: optical engines, photonic integrated circuit (PIC)-based interconnects, silicon photonics and free-space optics. It includes nine-year (volume and value) forecasts with breakouts by active components along with fiber and waveguide transmission media. Compound semiconductor, silicon and polymer waveguides are covered, as are VCSELs, silicon lasers and quantum dot lasers. In addition, the report contains assessments of the latest business and technology strategies in the chip-level optical interconnect space.

Companies discussed in this report include Avago, Cisco, Corning, Dow Chemical, Dow-Corning, DuPont, Finisar, Fujitsu, Furukawa, IBM, Intel, Juniper, Kotura, Micron, Novellus, Optical Interlinks, QD Laser, Reflex Photonics, Samtec, Sumitomo, TeraXion, Tokyo Electron, ULM Photonics, and VI Systems.

This report is a follow on to a previously issued report, “Revenue Opportunities for Optical Interconnects: Market and Technology Forecast – 2013-2020. [Vol. I Board-to-Board and Rack-Based]” that the firm issued in August. Details of that report are available at: http://www.cir-inc.com/cir-report-forecasts-big-data-and-green-data-centers-will-drive-optical-interconnect-market-to-2-2-billion-by-2018/.

From the Report:

The growing popularity of parallel computing, and the arrival of multicore processors and 3D chips are leading to data traffic jams both on-chip and chip-to-chip. However, CIR’s report believes that these trends are also creating opportunities for chip-level optical interconnects.

Avago, Finisar, IBM and Samtec have all proposed optical engines for chip-level interconnect. These miniaturized optical assemblies are currently the most mature technology available for this application and will generate revenues of $235 million in 2019. However, with their attached connectors and heat sinks, optical engines may prove too large for complex optical interconnection environments, such as in the coming generation of Exascale supercomputers.

Meanwhile, the arrival of multicore processors and 3D chips means that computer power now depends on how fast each CPU can talk to each other and to memory devices. So reliable, low-loss, high-speed interconnects between chips then becomes crucial. Interconnect data rate requirements could reach hundreds of times what they currently.

Because of the limitations of optical engines, there are emerging opportunities for compact PIC- based interconnect devices based on indium phosphide and gallium arsenide. CIR says these opportunities will generate $120 million in 2019 increasing to $275 million by 2021. However, bonding PIC interconnects onto a silicon processor or memory chip is both technically challenging and expensive. So far, only a few PIC and VCSEL technology companies have pursued the interconnect opportunity.

Although silicon photonics has compelling advantages, firms – especially Intel — have struggled for years to make active optical devices using silicon. A breakthrough in silicon laser technology would be the single most important development in optical interconnects allowing the full integration of both electronic information processing and optical integration. Faster VCSELs will also be important for the development of chip-level optical interconnect. Several firms and research institutes have announced high-speed VCSELs, operating all the way up to 55 Gbps, although such lasers await extensive commercialization. Quantum dot-enhanced VCSELs have also been proposed and these, too, may have applications in interconnection.

About CIR:

Communications Industry Researchers has been publishing hype-free industry analysis of the high-speed optical networking market for more than 20 years. It has recently published reports on rack-level and board-to-board optical interconnection and on active optical cabling. Visit http://www.cir-inc.com for a full listing of CIR’s reports and other services.

Media Contact:
Robert Nolan
Ilumatech
5330 Twin Hickory Rd
Glen Allen, Virginia 23059
(804) 938-0030
rob@ilumatech.com

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New CIR Report States that Sales of Active Optical Cables for the Data Center To Reach $1.5 billion

New CIR Report Predicts That Chip-Level Optical Interconnect Market Will Generate $520 million in Revenues by 2019