ClariPhy In the News
ClariPhy Announces Volume Shipments of LightSpeed, Industry's First Single-Chip 40G Coherent SoC
9/19/2011
ClariPhy Communications, Inc., a leading developer of ultra-high speed mixed
signal, digital signal processing (MXSP) system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for
coherent optical networks, announced today that it has achieved volume shipments
of its industry leading LightSpeed CL4010 Coherent SoC. The LightSpeed CL4010 is
the industry's first single-chip CMOS solution targeting the highly anticipated
deployment of 40 gigabit per second (40G) networks based on coherent technology.
Click here to read ClariPhy's Release>>
ClariPhy, Cortina Systems aim at 40-Gbps coherent optical network
7/26/2011
Communications semiconductor developers ClariPhy Communications, Inc. and Cortina Systems, Inc. say that designers can now effectively pair ClariPhy’s CL4010, a 40-Gbps single-chip coherent transceiver, and Cortina’s CS604x and CS600x 40G/10G Optical Transport Network (OTN) Processor families in coherent-enabled 40-Gbps optical equipment designs.
Click here to read LIGHTWAVE Release>>
ClariPhy Announces New Funding Round Led by Nokia Siemens Networks
6/20/2011
IRVINE, Calif. -- ClariPhy Communications, Inc., a
leading developer of ultra-high speed mixed signal, digital signal processing
(MXSP) ICs for optical networks, announced today it has secured $14M in new
financing. The funding round was led by Nokia Siemens Networks, a global
supplier of telecommunications equipment and services, and also included
existing investors. The investment strengthens ClariPhy's capability to drive
volume deployment of state of the art system on chips (SoCs) for coherent
optical transmission at data rates of 40 gigabits per second (40G), 100G and
beyond.
Click here to read ClariPhy's Release>>
Click here to read Nokia Siemens Networks Release>>
ClariPhy Wins EETimes ACE Award for Emerging Technology
May 2011
ClariPhy Named Winner of Prestigious 2011 EE Times ACE Award for Emerging Technology
ClariPhy is Among Industry’s Elite
ClariPhy Communications Inc., a fabless semiconductor company specializing in high speed communication ICs, today announced it was named the winner in UBM Electronics’ EE Times Seventh Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards for Emerging Technology. ClariPhy’s Digital Processor chip technology was selected as the IEEE Spectrum/EE Times ACE winner based on expectations for this technology making a high impact on society in the coming year. The Digital Processor chip technology is used extensively on ClariPhy’s 40G and 100G coherent standard product and SoC platforms.
The EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards celebrate the creators of technology who demonstrate leadership and innovation in the global industry and shape the world we live in.
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EETimes ACE Awards Finalist - Dual Nomination: IEEE Spectrum Emerging Technology and Technology in the Service of Society.
April 2011
ClariPhy's digital processor selected as 2011 ACE Award finalist as an up and coming technology that can change the world
The EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards celebrate the creators of technology who demonstrate leadership and innovation in the global industry and shape the world we live in.
Now entering the seventh year of the program, the EE Times ACE Awards is the leading electronics industry recognition event honoring the people and companies behind the technologies that are changing the way we work, live and play. ClariPhy has been selected as one of five finalists in two separate ACE categories. ClariPhy is ecstatic on being selected for this prestigious accolade from the editors of EE Times and IEEE Spectrum.
ClariPhy is looking forward to attend the ACE Awards on Tuesday, May 3rd at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA.
ClariPhy ACE Award nominations and fellow nominees are as follows:
IEEE Spectrum Technology in the Service of Society & IEEE Spectrum Emerging Technology Award
Laster Technologies
Smart Spectacles
Seabed Rig
Robotic Oil Driller
ClariPhy Communications Digital Processor
Digital Processor
Willow Garage Personal Robotics
Personal Robotics
IBM
Watson
Click here to read more >>
Technology Winners of 2011
February 2011
IEEE Spectrum chose these tech projects, all new and relatively untested, as having the greatest chances for the coming year - ClariPhy's digital processor
To a video-saturated world, it brings 100 gigabits per second of power
Internet usage is a monster that just keeps growing. Last year it
rose 62 percent, while the bandwidth to carry that traffic increased by
just 55 percent, according to the Internet tracking firm Telegeography.
One clever communications chip company wants to give the Net a little
breathing room. Aiming for the bandwidth trifecta—fast, cheap, and
low-power—ClariPhy Communications, based in Irvine, Calif., is now
preparing a chip that will squeeze more Netflixes, Mozys, and Carbonites
through Internet pipes without anyone’s having to lay another inch of
fiber.
The new chip will cram 100 gigabits per second through an optical
fiber. That’s enough data headroom to transmit the entire printed
contents of the U.S. Library of Congress in 15 minutes.
Paul Voois and Norman Swenson, the company’s CEO and CTO,
respectively, saw this day coming when they founded ClariPhy in 2004,
Then, as now, fiber-optic trunks carried the bulk of Internet traffic.
The optical communications were still being done with simple
electronics. A laser pulse meant 1; no pulse meant 0. But as the number
of users of YouTube, Hulu, and Facebook mushroomed, the Internet needed
more than simple electronics in its fiber backbones.
Today many Internet-bearing fiber cables put 4 bits on each laser
pulse—one on each perpendicular polarization state and one on each hump
of the wave’s phase (that is, on the sine and cosine parts). That way,
today’s best digital signal processing (DSP) chips can pack up to 40
gigabits onto 10 billion laser pulses per second. But as even some
40-Gb/s networks begin to split at the seams, imperfections in the
optical fibers themselves have begun to show.
Reason: Each optical fiber treats different polarizations
differently, leading to varying travel times for the bits. The problem
is particularly troublesome when the optical repeaters are widely
separated; some will soon be up to 3000 kilometers apart. How, then, to
retrieve those pristine 0s and 1s when one optical signal starts to
overlap another?
"We’re the cleanup crew," says Swenson. ClariPhy’s 40-Gb/s DSP chip
mathematically analyzes the electronic signals produced from the
optics—using standard silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor
designs—to extract the same stream of bits that entered the fiber-optic
line thousands of kilometers away.
To ramp the bandwidth up to 100 Gb/s, ClariPhy maintains the
4-bit-per-laser-pulse standard but increases the data traffic speed 2.5
times. The vast increase in throughput raises some complications. "When
you get to 100 [Gb/s], you’re really pressing the limits of the
signal-to-noise ratio," Swenson says.
That’s where ClariPhy introduces some clever tricks. After every 4
data bits, on average, the sending ClariPhy DSP chip encodes a single
parity bit that specifies whether the sum of the latest train of 0s and
1s is an odd or even number. That means that 20 percent of the jumbled
mess of waveforms consists of error-correcting information. And while
the error correction is mixed in with the actual data, sophisticated
statistics in ClariPhy’s on-chip algorithms can extract all the needed
information. True, this method begins by decreasing overall bandwidth by
20 percent, but it ends by enabling a 250 percent speed increase. Who’s
complaining when suddenly the world just got a lot faster?
Click here to read more >>
Oclaro backs ClariPHy in $24 million VC round
5/27/2010
LONDON — ClariPhy Communications Inc. (Irvine, Calif.), a vendor of mixed-signal, digital signal processing (MXSP) integrated circuits for optical networks, has raised $24 million in Series C funding.
The financing includes new strategic investors — Oclaro Inc., a provider of optical communications and laser components, and multiple telecom OEMs. All ClariPhy's existing venture capital investors participated in this round, including Norwest Venture Partners, Allegis Capital, Onset Ventures, and Pacific General Partners.
ClariPhy, founded in 2002, said it would use the money to develop and deliver a single-chip MXSP that increase an optical network's reach and tolerance to impairments such as chromatic dispersion, polarization-mode dispersion and fiber nonlinearity, while reducing cost of ownership for both OEMs and service providers.
The company's line of 10G, 40G and 100G networking chips are based on advanced MXSP schemes such as Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation (MLSE) and Coherent Detection that approach the limits of achievable performance. ClariPhy's implementation of these schemes in 40-nm single-chip CMOS enables equipment designers to reduce cost and power by integrating multiple system functions into customized System on Chip (SoC) solutions.
Driving demand for these MXSP ICs is the growing adoption of a variety of new broadband services from video and social networking to voice-over-IP and cloud computing. With analysts predicting that network traffic will grow by more than 40 percent annually over the next five years, network operators are rapidly migrating from 10G to 40G transmission rates and beyond.
"Our new partnerships with Oclaro and others open up exciting opportunities to gain insight into customer problems, integrate our innovative technology into new ASIC and SoC applications, and generate significant new revenue streams," said Paul Voois, cofounder and CEO of ClariPhy, in a statement.
Oclaro, a supplier of optical components for 40G regional and metro networks, will use ClariPhy's technology to expand into the 100G Coherent Long Haul and Ultra Long Haul markets. "As optical networks rapidly move toward 100G, the importance of DSP and mixed-signal ICs increases," noted Alain Couder, CEO of Oclaro, in the same statement.
In 2009 Oclaro used ClariPhy's MLSE IC to boost the performance of its TL9000 transponder for 10G networks.
Click here to read more >>
Mintera and ClariPhy Announce Partnership
December 7, 2009
ACTON, Mass. & IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Mintera ® Corporation, the high performance optical transport systems solutions leader, and ClariPhy Communications Inc., a developer of high-speed mixed-signal networking ICs, today announced their partnership to deliver a next-generation 40 Gbps DWDM coherent optical transport solution. Mintera's MI 5000XM 40 Gbps Polarization Multiplexed Quadrature Phase Shift Keyed (PM-QPSK) transceiver module will employ a state-of-the-art mixed-signal application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designed and supplied by ClariPhy.
"Mintera is proud to be working in partnership with ClariPhy on the development of this product," said Terry Unter, Mintera President and CEO. "The combination of Mintera's market-proven optical and module design capability with ClariPhy's silicon-proven experience in digital signal processing (DSP) and mixed-signal IC design will deliver a market-leading and much needed product in the 40 Gbps marketplace. We have been working in close collaboration for several months and expect to be shipping products in Q4 2010."
The companies have entered into a comprehensive partnership agreement that includes joint specification and optimization of the ClariPhy ASIC and surrounding optical components, and which enables Mintera to be first to market with a module incorporating ClariPhy's ASIC.
"We are excited to partner with Mintera and help bring their groundbreaking 40 Gbps coherent module to the market," said Dr. Paul Voois, cofounder and CEO of ClariPhy. "Mintera's leadership position in the 40 Gbps market, strong endorsements from tier-1 OEMs, and deep expertise in optical transmission make them an excellent lead partner for our 40 Gbps coherent ASIC. In developing this ASIC, ClariPhy is building on its proven high-speed DSP and mixed-signal expertise to be the first to deliver a 40 Gbps coherent ASIC in low-power single-chip CMOS technology. We look forward to introducing this ASIC in Mintera's product line next year."
The MI 5000XM 40 Gbps PM-QPSK coherent module enables the design of cost effective transmission systems on the most demanding transmission routes. Compatible with Mintera's MI 4000XM Adaptive-DPSKâ„¢ product on 50GHz channel-spaced systems and transmission over agile ROADM networks, the MI 5000XM enables Mintera's customers to deliver best-in-class solutions. The unit conforms to the industry standard footprint and incorporates an electrical Mux/Demux for compatibility with any 40 Gbps framer. The module has a 300-pin MSA connector with support for the appropriate I2C commands, thus enabling simple hardware and software integration.
"Aggressive growth in the 40 Gbps WDM market, due to multiple wide scale network deployments now underway, has created the need for high performance DWDM modules to support the most demanding network transmission applications," said Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst at Infonetics Research. "Mintera's new MI 5000XM PM-QPSK Coherent 40 Gbps product appears positioned to be a significant player in these deployments, given its capabilities of ultra-long haul reach and high tolerance to signal distortions."
About Mintera Corporation
Mintera is a high bit-rate optical transport systems solution leader enabling migration to 40 and 100 Gbps in metro-core, regional, long-haul, and ultra long-haul networks. Mintera's flexible multi-service product-set enables service providers to upgrade their existing infrastructure in an evolutionary and seamless fashion. Mintera continues to gain customer traction since demonstrating the world's fastest ultra long-haul optical transport connection in June 2004. The company is working on higher bit-rate solutions with multiple research and development labs at carriers, systems suppliers, component manufacturers, research institutes and universities to further drive down optical transmission costs. For more information, visit www.mintera.com.
About ClariPhy Corporation
ClariPhy Communications, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company developing high-speed ICs targeting 10 and 40 Gbps networks in enterprise backbone, enterprise data center and telecom environments. ClariPhy's ICs enable IT and network management to significantly improve network performance and lower cost. ClariPhy's investors include Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Onset Ventures, Allegis Capital and Pacific General Ventures. ClariPhy is headquartered in Irvine, California with offices in Los Altos, California and Cordoba, Argentina. For more information, please visit www.clariphy.com.
© 2009 Mintera Corporation. Mintera is a trademark of Mintera Corporation. ClariPhy is a trademark of ClariPhy Communications, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
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ClariPhy
to demo 10G MLSD PHY in XFP application (with SEI’s
DML Technology) at ECOC 2008
September
16, 2008
ClariPhy
will demonstrate its all-digital CMOS 10-Gbit/sec
maximum likelihood sequence detection (MLSD)
technology in an XFP application at ECOC 2008 in
combination with Sumitomo Electric Industries'
uncooled directly modulated laser (DML)
technology.
ClariPhy says its MLSD PHY is a low-power,
all-digital CMOS integrated circuit (IC) that
delivers optimal electronic dispersion compensation
performance in optical links ranging from a few
meters in data centers up to hundreds of kilometers
in long-haul telecom networks.
According to the company, the superior performance
of its MLSD PHY can dramatically lower total cost in
optical networks by lowering the cost and power of
optical components without sacrificing link
performance. The demonstration at ECOC offers a clear
example of this benefit: the combination of
ClariPhy's MLSD PHY and SEI's uncooled DML technology
achieves 100-km transmission over singlemode fiber at
a bit error rate less than 1e-12 in a low-power XFP
form factor. To achieve such performance without
ClariPhy's MLSD technology would require temperature
controlled lasers and external modulation, say
company representatives, a combination that would be
much more expensive and power-hungry.
ClariPhy
demos 10G MLSD PHY in XFP application at ECOC
2008
September
15, 2008
At
ECOC 2008, Europe's largest conference on optical
communications, ClariPhy will demonstrate its
all-digital CMOS 10-Gbit/s maximum likelihood
sequence detection (MLSD) technology in an XFP
demonstration in combination with Sumitomo Electric
Industries' (SEI's) uncooled directly modulated laser
(DML) technology and will be presented in Sumitomo
Electric Europe Ltd's booth #257.
"We welcome the opportunity to showcase our MLSD
PHY in conjunction with SEI at ECOC 2008," said Dr.
Paul Voois, cofounder and CEO of ClariPhy. "The
demonstration of error-free 10G transmission over
100km of fiber using uncooled DML technology
represents a dramatic breakthrough in optical
networking, and shows the clear cost and performance
advantage that MLSD-based EDC offers the market."
"We are very pleased with the performance of
ClariPhy's MLSD PHY in combination with SEI's DML
technology. Together these technologies provide a
very compelling value proposition to the optical
networking market," said Terry Fujitani
(fujitani@sei.co.jp), Department Head of Lightwave
Technologies Department, Optical Transmission
Components Division, Sumitomo Electric Industries.
ClariPhy
Communications to Present at Linley Group High Speed
Interconnect Design
Seminar
May
6, 2008
ClariPhy
announced that John O'Neill, Vice President of
Marketing, will present at the Linley Tech High-Speed
Interconnect Seminar on May 14th, 2008 in
San
Jose, CA. ClariPhy's
presentation will provide a retrospective overview of
the 10G optical market and highlight the density,
power, flexibility and cost advantages SFP+ has over
alternative copper solutions. Furthermore, the
presentation will illustrate ClariPhy's highly
differentiated, digital CMOS based Maximum Likelihood
Sequence Detection (MLSD) 10G PHY solutions. ClariPhy
is the first and only supplier of fully integrated
CMOS based MLSD solutions for Enterpriseand Telecom
applications.
Ethernet
Alliance
Members Hold
Successful Interoperability Demonstration of SFP+
Optical Interfaces
April 21, 2008
The Ethernet Alliance recently announced
that members, including ClariPhy successfully
conducted multi-vendor interoperability testing of
Small Form Factor Pluggable (SFP+) short-reach
(10GBASE-SR) and long-reach (10GBASE-LR) optical
interfaces. The testing, held by the Ethernet
Alliance SFP+/EDC subcommittee, demonstrated multiple
SFP+ SR and LR optical transceivers and physical
layer (PHY) ICs interoperating over 270 meters of OM3
multimode fiber and 10 km of single-mode fiber. In
addition, the group demonstrated multiple SFP+ SR and
LR optical transceivers and PHY ICs interoperating
with XENPAK, X2, and XFP optical transceivers over
the same distances.
SFP+ modules are hot-pluggable,
small-footprint optical transceivers intended for
datacom applications. SFP+ interfaces offer the
smallest, lowest-power solution for 10 Gigabit
Ethernet (10GbE) to enable increased density in
enterprise applications. SFP+ modules and PHY ICs are
being developed for SR, LR, LRM (long-wavelength
multimode) and ER (extra-long-wavelength) optical
reaches per IEEE Std. 802.3ae-2002 and IEEE Std.
802.3aq-2006. Electrical and mechanical interface
specifications for SFP+ modules, direct attach
cables, and hosts are under definition by the SFF
Committee, a multi-source agreement group with broad
industry participation.
"We expect the move to smaller
SFP+ modules will help increase the port density and
reduce the cost of 10 Gigabit Ethernet line cards,"
said Jag Bolaria, senior analyst, Linley Group.
"Demonstrating interoperability between 10GBASE-SR
and 10GBASE-LR SFP+ modules with existing XENPAK, X2
and XFP modules showcases the readiness for
deployment of SFP+ modules."
ClariPhy
Communications Denonstrates Second Generation EDC
Transceiver Based on MLSD Technology at OFC /NFOEC
2008
Transceiver
Combines Dramatic Power Reduction and Proven
Performance
February 20, 2008
ClariPhy announced that it
will demonstrate its 10Gbit/s integrated circuits
(ICs) with industry leading performance at the
OFC/NFOEC conference to showcase a second generation
all-digital CMOS Maximum Likelihood Sequence
Detection (MLSD) Electronic Dispersion Compensation
(EDC) engine.
ClariPhy has previously
demonstrated the advantage of a digital MLSD
architecture for bandwidth-constrained media such as
legacy multi-mode fiber in enterprise backbones. As
the only supplier of
10Gbit/s MLSD based ICs,
ClariPhy has leveraged the availability of advanced
CMOS technologies to provide unmatched performance
while meeting the stringent power budget of next
generation data center andenterprise networking
equipment.
"We introduced our MLSD-based
transceiver at OFC 2007 and established a new
standard for 10Gbit/s EDC performance," said Dr. Paul
Voois, cofounder and CEO of ClariPhy. "Our second
generation transceiver delivers even better
performance at significantly lower power,
demonstrating one of the key advantages of the
all-digital CMOS approach, which is the exponential
reduction in power and cost achievable via Moore's
Law. History has shown that all-digital CMOS is the
winning technology in high-volume communications
applications such as Ethernet. By delivering
industry-best performance, ClariPhy has established a
unique and highly differentiated advantage for
10Gbit/s EDC applications."
ClariPhy
to participate in the 2008 International
Solid
State
Circuits
January
31, 2008
ClariPhy’s
chief technology officer and co-founder, Dr. Norm
Swenson and its vice president and chief systems
architect, Dr. Oscar
Agazzi
, will present at three
separate sessions at the ISSCC February 3-7,
2008.
In
a conference session on optical communications, Dr.
Agazzi will present a peer-reviewed paper entitled “A 90nm CMOS DSP MLSD
Transceiver with Integrated AFE for Electronic
Dispersion Compensation of Multi-mode Optical Fibers
at 10Gb/s.” This paper describes
ClariPhy’s 10GBASE-LRM transceiver IC,
available since February 2007. This IC is the only MLSD (maximum likelihood
sequence detection) based product available for
10GBASE-LRM and the only monolithic 10Gb/s MLSD
IC
At
a special topic session entitled “Trends and
Challenges in Optical Communications
Front-End,” Dr. Swenson will give an invited
presentation on the transition of 10Gb/s Electronic
Dispersion Compensation (EDC) from analog to
DSP-based CMOS solutions. He
will focus on the challenges of that transition, the
enabling technologies that meet those challenges, and
the benefits thereby achieved.
Additionally,
in a design forum focusing on the future of high
speed transceivers, Dr. Agazzi will provide an
invited tutorial entitled “DSP-Based Optical Transceivers for
Electronic Dispersion Compensation of Single-Mode and
Multimode Fibers.”
Metro
Ethernet Boom Fuels Growth in 10-Gbit/s Components
Market, New Report Finds
November 20, 2007
Network operator demand for equipment that will
enable them to deliver more robust carrier Ethernet
services will spur significant growth in the use of
10-Gbit/s Ethernet components, with port shipments
expected to top the 1 million mark in 2009, according
to the latest edition of Light Reading's Components
Insider, “10-Gbit/s Ethernet Components: 2008
Market Trends analyzes current and projected use of
10-Gbit/s Ethernet components by systems
vendors.” It is based on the results of an
exclusive, worldwide survey of more than 240
engineers, designers, and product managers who work
for telecom and networking system equipment
manufacturers.
"2007 has been a significant year for 10-Gbit/s
Ethernet, with the development of the first SFP+
modules representing the fifth generation of 10-
Gbit/s Ethernet optical modules and the introduction
of the first 10GBase-T products," notes Simon
Stanley, research analyst for Light Reading's
Components Insider and author of the report. "With
significant reductions in component costs and the
introduction of 10-Gbit/s Ethernet over copper based
on the 10GBase-T specification, 10-Gbit/s Ethernet is
set to grow further, challenging Fibre Channel and
InfiniBand in the data center and bringing 10- Gbit/s
performance to the desktop."
ClariPhy
to Demonstrate it's MLSD-based EDC for Next
Generation Telecommunication Applications at ECOC
2007
September
14, 2007
ClariPhy
announced that it will demonstrate its all-digital
CMOS Maximum Likelihood Sequence Detection (MLSD)
Electronic Dispersion Compensation (EDC) at ECOC
2007, Europe’s
largest optical communications event.
MLSD
is the optimal receiver architecture for dispersive
fibers. Because of the complexities of IC design at
10 Gbit/s, dispersion compensation has historically
been implemented by adding dispersion compensating
fiber (DCF) to the primary fiber. DCFs suffer from
the fundamental limitations of providing a fixed
amount of dispersion compensation and introducing
significant loss that must be overcome with expensive
optical amplifiers. In
contrast, ClariPhy’s MLSD-based EDC offers
dynamic dispersion compensation without introducing
loss, allowing for real time optical network
optimization and future proofing as networks migrate
to reconfigurable DWDM technologies.
ClariPhy
Communications Enters 10G Telecom Market with
Advanced Maximum Likelihood Sequence Detection
Technology
September
13, 2007
ClariPhy
has expanded its market focus to include 10G
telecommunications (telecom) networks. ClariPhy's
Maximum Likelihood Sequence Detection (MLSD) based
Electronic Dispersion Compensation (EDC) engine,
implemented in a single-chip CMOS form factor, is
perfectly suited to enable data rate increases from
2.5G to 10G in carrier networks cost-effectively and
without sacrificing performance or reach. Based on
estimates from industry analyst firm CIR, optical
transponder shipments are expected to grow by almost
40% per annum over the next five years, with the
total dispersion compensation market reaching $755
Million by 2012.
ClariPhy
has completed product evaluations with the industry's
leading optical transponder vendors. Based on this
activity, ClariPhy has defined a family of products
which will enable vendors to leverage MLSD to
complement the technologies they have pioneered such
as advanced lasers and modulators, advanced
modulation techniques, and emerging transponder form
factors for the diverse set of telecom market
segments.
ClariPhy’s Integrated CMOS MLSD Engine Creates Large Market
Expansion Opportunity
September
13, 2007
Carriers
today seek to upgrade their optical networks to 10G
while simultaneously improving performance and
lowering the overall cost of installing and
maintaining these networks. EDC technology is being rapidly integrated
into 10G equipment based on its ability to improve
performance through impairment mitigation. Specifically, MLSD-based EDC
enables the use of lower cost optical components and
extends the reach of optical links through the
compensation of impairments found in the components
and fiber optic cabling.
Lawrence
Gasman, CIR President and Chief Components Analyst
commented: “In our recent report
‘Opportunities in Dispersion Compensation:
Electronic, Optical and Tunable,’ we highlight
the increasing importance of dispersion compensation
and the need for higher performing dynamic dispersion
compensation. EDC components including
ClariPhy’s CMOS MLSD device have a compelling
proposition and are well timed for the emerging
opportunity in metro, long haul, and ultra long haul
networks.”
According
to ClariPhy’s CEO, Dr. Paul Voois,
“Our engineering team has extensive
experience in telecom product development. Entering the telecom market
represents a logical expansion of our initial
enterprise focus, while building upon our core value
proposition of using CMOS-based digital signal
processing to reduce the cost and improve the
performance of optical communications. We have
demonstrated significant performance advantages in
enterprise applications and we expect to do the same
in the telecom space.”
June
15, 2007
ClariPhy
Communications and Helic
S.A.
have
announced details of their joint engineering
collaboration over the past 12 months, which has been
instrumental in the first-pass success of ClariPhy's
single-chip, 10GBASE-LRM, mixed-signal CMOS
transceiver. ClariPhy's transceiver features a
low-power 10G Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) and a
Maximum Likelihood Sequence Detection (MLSD)
Electronic Dispersion Compensation (EDC) engine.
ClariPhy
recently demonstrated its 10GBASE-LRM integrated
circuit (IC) with industry-leading performance at OFC
2007. In response to the demand for a better
performing product, ClariPhy has developed an
all-digital CMOS solution integrating a low power 10G
ADC and MLSD engine. The all-digital architecture
overcomes the limitations of analog architectures by
utilizing underlying signal recovery algorithms that
are proven to be optimal for the application. The
result is predictable and stable performance near the
theoretical limit.
"We knew from the start
of this project that success depended on executing
beyond the state of the art in mixed signal IC
design," said Dr. Paul Voois, ClariPhy's CEO. "The
engineering collaboration with Helic was instrumental
in our first-pass design success. ClariPhy has
pioneered the migration to an all-digital 10-Gbit/s
PHY, and Helic's tool allowed us to implement our
advanced product architecture with
confidence."
ClariPhy
and Helic Announce Details of their Joint Engineering
Collaboration
June
4, 2007
ClariPhy
selected Helic’s EDA tool, VeloceRF, after
diligent evaluation to aid in the first-pass success
of ClariPhy’s single-chip, 10GBASE-LRM,
mixed-signal CMOS transceiver. ClariPhy’s
transceiver features a low-power 10G Analog to
Digital Converter (ADC) and a Maximum Likelihood
Sequence Detection (MLSD) Electronic Dispersion
Compensation (EDC) engine.
The
main requirement was synthesis and modeling of spiral
inductors, but ClariPhy’s designers found the
Helic tool also valuable as an inductive parasitics
(RLCK) extractor. VeloceRF was used to synthesize
and model all the inductive content of the chip,
including on-chip inductors and several critical,
high-speed interconnects. VeloceRF enabled
ClariPhy’s designers to optimize circuit
performance while minimizing silicon real estate.
With inductance accurately calculated by VeloceRF, it
was possible to mitigate detrimental effects before
tapeout, and achieve excellent performance in
first-pass silicon.
“We
greatly enjoyed working with the ClariPhy
team,” said Sotiris Bantas, vice president of
technology at Helic. “They leveraged the
tool’s capabilities and latest features,
including spiral component synthesis in CMOS and
inductance/mutual inductance extraction for accurate
10 GHz simulations. ClariPhy is already a marquee
customer for us, demonstrating VeloceRF as a winning
methodology for high-speed and RF nanoscale CMOS
design.”
ClariPhy
to demo all-digital EDC transceiver based on MLSD
technology at OFC/NFOEC
March
23, 2007
ClariPhy
Communications Inc. will demonstrate its 10GBASE-LRM
integrated circuits (ICs) at next week's OFC/NFOEC
Conference in Anaheim, CA.
ClariPhy
says it will showcase an all-digital CMOS IC
comprising a 10-gigasample/sec analog-to-digital
converter (ADC) and a Maximum Likelihood Sequence
Detection electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) engine. The demonstration
will include industry-defined, worst-case 300-meter
fibers and low-cost SFP+ optical modules from such
vendors as ExceLight Communications and Picolight.
ClariPhy
Communications Demonstrates All-Digital EDC
Transceiver Based on MLSD Technology at OFC/NFOEC
2007
March
22, 2007
In
response to the demand for a better performing
product, ClariPhy has developed an all-digital CMOS
solution integrating a low power 10-gigasample per
second ADC and MLSD engine. The all-digital
architecture overcomes the limitations of analog
architectures by utilizing underlying signal recovery
algorithms that are proven to be optimal for the
application. The result is predictable and stable
performance near the theoretical limit.
"Our engineering team has delivered breakthrough
technology that few believed possible," said Dr. Paul
Voois, founder and CEO of ClariPhy. "In developing
the first MLSD transceiver for 10GBASE-LRM
applications, we have extended the state of the art
in numerous areas of IC architecture, VLSI
implementation, and mixed-signal design and layout.
In addition, history has shown that an all-digital
CMOS approach outperforms analog alternatives for
challenging communications applications. ClariPhy is
proud to be the leader in the transition of EDC
technology to all-digital architectures, and we are
confident that our technology will significantly
raise industry standards of performance for
10GBASE-LRM and SFP+
applications."
ClariPhy
Communications Presents 10G Ethernet Physical Layer
Compliance Testing Fundamentals at OFC/NFOEC 2007
March
22, 2007
ClariPhy
Communications announced that Dr. Norm Swenson,
founder and CTO, will present a paper on the IEEE
802.3aq (10GBASE-LRM) adopted Transmitter Waveform
and Dispersion Penalty (TWDP) test methodology at the
OFC/NFOEC conference (www.ofcnfoec.org) in Anaheim,
California on March 25-29, 2007.
Dr.
Swenson will address how the incorporation of
Electronic Dispersion Compensation (EDC) technology
in optical networking presents new challenges in
compliance testing. The paper describes the
10GBASE-LRM TWDP test and procedure, discusses the
motivation for this type of test, and provides
supporting mathematical details of the underlying
algorithm.
“From
ClariPhy’s inception, we have focused on
enabling low cost 10Gbit/s Ethernet on existing
infrastructure,” said Dr. Norm Swenson, founder
and CTO of ClariPhy Communications. “A test
methodology that ensures interoperability among
low-cost solutions was a major challenge that we have
spent considerable effort addressing.”
The
mighty micro-multinational
The
garage goes global as a new breed of startup operates
worldwide in the battle for technology, talent, and
customers.
by Michael V. Copeland, Business 2.0
Magazine senior writer
July 28 2006
Oscar Agazzi is the magic expatriate at Irvine,
Calif., chip startup ClariPhy, where he is chief
systems architect. About 18 months ago, the native
Argentinean and Broadcom veteran proposed to ClariPhy
CEO Paul Voois that they hire a team of graduates
from Argentina's National University of Cordoba.
Why Argentina? The country has lots of talent but
less competition for top engineers than tech hot
spots to the north. That made it relatively easy for
Voois and Agazzi to make the 18-hour trip from
Southern California to South America and pluck eight
of the best candidates for about a third the cost of
hiring homegrown talent.
"We can set a very, very high bar for the people
we recruit," Voois says. "And it's not a cost thing
so much as the ability to hire more people for the
same money. Because of that, we will have gotten to
market faster and with a better product than if we
had tried to do it all in Irvine."
But make no mistake about it: This wasn't about
heading south for some hit-and-run code crashing.
Argentina became an extension of ClariPhy's operation
and the South Americans an integral part of its team.
For Agazzi, that initially meant going back and forth
on planes and the phone, acting as a middleman and,
in some cases, literally as a translator between the
two hemispheres.
He brought the Argentinean engineers to Irvine for
extended visits and made sure the team not only had
interesting work to do but also delivered on its
tasks. "We have developed a common culture that spans
both teams and both countries," Agazzi says. "That is
a very powerful concept that can grow along with this
global company we are building."
Fabless
comms IC firm establishes Argentinean design
center
By
Dylan McGrath
6/21/06
Fabless
communications semiconductor provider ClariPhy has
completed the incorporation of its Argentinean
development center in Cordoba. Billed by some as the
"Silicon Valley of South America," Cordoba is the
site of development centers for a number of prominent
companies. The nearby National University has more
than 100,000 students and, according to ClariPhy,
offers a "relatively untapped pool for engineering
talent."
Oscar Agazzi,
ClariPhy corporate vice president and chief systems
architect as well as president and CEO of ClariPhy
Argentina S.A., called ClariPhy's move to establish a
design center in Argentina “progressive."
Agazzi, an
Argentinean native, said, "This is an exciting
opportunity to work on some of the most advanced
technologies in the communications industry."
Local
chip maker opens design center in Argentina
By
Tamara Chuang
6/21/06
ClariPhy has added a
design center in Argentina to speed up development on
communication chips for 10-gigabit technology. The
facility near the National University of Cordoba will
double ClariPhy's design capabilities.
The area was chosen
because there's only a four-hour time difference with
the Irvine headquarters compared with time
differences of 12 hours for India and 15 hours for
China. Also, the local university has thousands of
students and is "a relatively untapped pool for
engineering talent," a company statement said.
The company builds
chips for 10-gigabit-per-second communication
networks, a niche that will allow for faster Internet
speeds.
ClariPhy
Communications doubles up -- in Argentina
6/21/06
ClariPhy has
completed the incorporation of its Argentinean
development center near the National University of
Cordoba. The development center doubles ClariPhy's
design capabilities and accelerates development of
10-Gbit/sec mixed signal and other high-speed ICs.
"ClariPhy is built
on world-class engineering talent. The team assembled
in Argentina has made a significant contribution to
the development of our first product, a 10-Gbit/sec
physical-layer device for use on installed multimode
fiber networks," said Dr. Paul Voois, president and
CEO of ClariPhy. "Based on its history of execution
and on the exceptional engineering talent in Cordoba,
I am confident that our team there will continue to
play a key role in ClariPhy's success."
Glimmer
of 10G unity casts fiber in new light
By
Loring Wirbel
4/24/06
Moving certain
portions of electronics outside the transceiver
module could allow for more efficient use of
dispersion compensation and clocking, since one
device could serve multiple ports. Newcomer ClariPhy
Communications Inc. is using SFP+ for its EDC chips
as a differentiator in a dispersion compensation
market already under aggressive attack by others.
ClariPhy will pitch SFP+ in such emerging Ethernet
markets as LRM, the long-reach standard for multimode
fiber, and the LR and SR standards for achieving long
and short reaches over single-mode fiber.
Chip
vendors line up for EDC business
By
Stephen Hardy
4/1/06
These entrenched IC
providers will see competition from ClariPhy
Communications Inc. (Irvine, CA). Unlike most EDC
offerings for the LRM space that use some form of
decision feedback equalizer (DFE) and/or feed forward
equalizer (FFE), ClariPhy will pair FFE with maximum
likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE). MLSE has been
used successfully by companies such as CoreOptics for
single-mode applications, but ClariPhy CEO Paul Voois
says his crew has found a way to apply it
economically to multimode requirements. The CMOS
based device should begin sampling by the end of this
year's third quarter, Voois says.
10-Gigabit
Ethernet camp eyes SFP+
By
Meghan Fuller
4/1/06
With every new
Ethernet speed, data rates tend to increase by a
factor often, which typically results in a price
premium for new modules. Fibre Channel data rates, by
contrast, merely double with each new speed. Folks in
the Fibre Channel world, therefore, are accustomed to
purchasing new modules at newer rates for roughly the
same price or at only a slight premium over existing
modules.
"In the past, the
way people have attacked that is to put more silicon
in the module," notes Norm Swenson, CTO of ClariPhy
Communications (Irvine, CA). "The XFP, for example,
has a retimer inside the module in both the transmit
and receive directions. But when you start adding
those components inside the module, you start adding
cost that the Fibre Channel community was not that
eager to adopt."
10
Gigabit Ethernet Costs to Drop
By
John G. Spooner
2/20/06
A new generation of
networking chip startups is attempting to find a path
into businesses' networks by making 10 Gigabit
Ethernet networking gear more palatable to their
technology budgets.
ClariPhy plans to
offer a chip that can save companies money by bumping
the bandwidth of existing network cables. Based on a
DSP (digital-signal processor), its physical layer
interface chip for 10 Gigabit Ethernet most likely
will be built into line cards used by network
switches. The chip will make it possible for
companies to continue using their existing 2.5G-bps
multimode optical network cables, but it promises to
bump the bandwidth of those cables to 10G bps.
Making
Gig to 10Gig a seamless step
Can cheaper
technology for 10Gig fibre displace copper LANs in
our hearts?
By
Bryan Betts
2/17/06
ClariPhy is
developing what CEO Paul Voois claims will answer to
the upgrader's dilemma - a PHY (physical interface)
chip for fibre optic networking that will enable
today's multimode fibre installations to be upgraded
to 10Gig via the upcoming 10GBase-LRM standard. Not
only will 10Gig over LRM be cheaper than today's LX4
spec for 10Gig fibre, he argues, but it will go
further than the 10GBase-T spec for 10Gig over copper
and generate less heat too.
Chip
Makers Pitch 10 Gigabits on the Cheap
By
John G. Spooner
2/14/06
The chip (to be
offered by ClariPhy), which will conform to the
forthcoming IEEE 10GBase-LRM standard for 10 Gigabit
Ethernet over optical cables, "is able to offer the
increase (in bandwidth) because its built-in
digital-signal processor can compensate for
distortions created by sending the high-speed
signals," said Paul Voois, ClariPhy's CEO, in Irvine,
Calif.
"What's going to
save them cost going to 10 Gigabit is not having to
replace their cable," Voois said.
Chip
Makers Pitch 10 Gigabits on the Cheap
By
John G. Spooner
2/13/06
Following the
10GBase-LRM standard means companies can cut costs by
employing fewer lasers for sending networking signals
via optical cables than current chips based on than
today's 10GBase-LX4 standard. "But ClariPhy's secret
sauce is in the way it employs its electronic
dispersion compensation techniques, making use of the
DSP to compensate for signal distortion, in addition
to using CMOS, a standard method for manufacturing
processors, memory and other chips," Voois said.
OPTICAL
NETWORKS: Chip preps for SFP+ standard
By
Loring Wirbel
2/13/06
ClariPhy is aiming
its upcoming electronic dispersion-compensation (EDC)
chip at SFP+, the industry's emerging
small-form-factor pluggable optical-module standard.
"The SFP+ standard is critical," said ClariPhy chief
executive Paul Voois. Originally promoted by Fibre
Channel advocates as a follow-on to the SFP module
used at lower speeds, SFP+ is now seen as appropriate
for 10-Gbit Ethernet using the LRM (long-range
multimode), SR (short-reach) or LR (long-reach) fiber
standards.
"There were also
plenty of startups working in dispersion-compensation
areas, so we had to show we had something unique,"
Voois said. "We consciously focused on fiber in the
enterprise, instead of public metro applications. And
we avoided the XFP module market, because with XFP,
you had to leave the EDC functions in the module or
you could not equalize the channel."
XFP
Module Gets a Shrink
Craig
Matsumoto, Light Reading
2/10/06
"The smaller size of
SFP+ could also boost linecard density to at least 24
ports per card from 16 with XFP," says Paul Voois,
CEO of chipmaker ClariPhy Communications Inc. But
wait, there's more: Putting the electronics outside
the module also opens the possibility of serving
multiple lines per module, the way Gigabit Ethernet
does. "That's how you really drive down costs," Voois
says.
XFP
module gets a shrink
Craig
Matsumoto, Light Reading
2/10/06
Chip vendors and
optics suppliers are crafting the next transceiver
standard for 8-Gbit/s Fibre Channel and possibly
10-Gbit/s Ethernet, one that could eventually
supplant XFP modules. It's being called SFP+ -- a
smaller module than XFP. It removes electronics such
as a chip for clock and data recovery, putting them
on the linecard instead. This lets the module shrink
to the size of the small-form pluggable (SFP) used
for 2.5-Gbit/s ports.
XFP
Module Gets a Shrink
Craig
Matsumoto, Light Reading
2/9/06
SFP+ would be a
smaller module than XFP. It removes electronics such
as a chip for clock and data recovery, putting them
on the linecard instead. This lets the module shrink
to the size of the small-form pluggable (SFP) used
for 2.5-Gbit/s ports.
Why does that
matter? For starters, the engineering is easier when
things are added to a linecard, as opposed to the
module. A shift to SFP+ could lower the cost of
optical modules.
Newcomer
ClariPhy reveals plan for reducing fiber costs
By
Jeff Caruso
2/7/06
This week marks
ClariPhy's official debut, and company is claiming to
have developed the first DSP-based PHY for 10Gbps
over fiber using a CMOS process. ClariPhy is hanging
its hat on 10GBase-LRM, which is close to becoming an
IEEE standard. It uses a single laser and set of
optics, rather than the four lasers and four sets of
optics of the earlier 10GBase-LX4 standard.
ClariPhy is also
using CMOS to get the cost down, and is looking to
the SFP+ serial form factor as well. CEO Paul Voois
says he expects Cisco to go from XAUI to a serial
interface, and that the rest of the industry will
follow, creating a market for SFP+ and breaking the
"cost barriers."
ClariPhy
clarifies market direction, touts technology
advancements
By
Meghan Fuller
2/6/06
ClariPhy's initial
product will be a 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) PHY
targeting the emerging 10GBase-LRM Ethernet standard,
nearing IEEE ratification. However, the device will
be applicable for all serial optical standards, notes
Dr. Paul Voois, president and CEO of ClariPhy.
The company has
developed what it claims is the first digital signal
processing (DSP)-based PHY for 10 Gbits/sec over
multimode fiber. Its PHY "will exceed 300-m reach
over legacy multimode fiber, thereby enabling a
seamless and cost-effective upgrade of existing
Ethernet infrastructure to 10-Gbit/sec speeds,"
reports Voois. "For new installations, our technology
will enable the best combination of power
dissipation, reach, and latency of any PHY over any
cabling medium," he adds.
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