Product and Pricing Announcement
23 July 2001

All-Fiber Myrinet

The future has arrived. Start thinking of Myrinet as an all-fiber network. Myricom is pleased to announce reduced prices for Myrinet components with Fiber ports. The prices for Myrinet-Fiber components are now equal to the prices of the corresponding interface and switch components with Serial (HSSDC copper cable) ports.

Myrinet-Fiber links carry packets at 2+2 Gbit/s data rates over distances up to 200m. The fiber cable is a pair of 50/125 multimode fibers with an LC connector on each end.

Due to the advantages of fiber over copper cables, Myricom expects future sales and shipments of Myrinet products to shift almost entirely to fiber.

Myricom will continue to produce components with Serial ports as long as there is a demand for them, and maintains an inventory of these components for replacement. Myrinet SAN, which is used internally in switch-network products and in special applications, will also continue to be supported.

For those of us who have struggled for years with computer cables of all kinds, including Myrinet cables, these optical-fiber cables are a marvel.

• The fiber-pair cables are thin, lightweight, and very flexible. A bundle of 128 fiber cables, such as those connecting to a 128-host switch, is only ~4cm in diameter.
• The electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) characteristics of fiber cables are ideal. The cable includes no electrical conductors, emits no electromagnetic interference (EMI), and tolerates any amount of "ground noise" between fiber-connected components. The EMI emitted by Myrinet switches and switch networks with Fiber ports is within Class A limits by excellent margins.
• Myrinet-Fiber cables may be up to 200m in length, whereas Myrinet-Serial cables are limited to 10m.
• Fiber cables are exceptionally reliable. There are no electrical contacts or connectors in the cable ends. The cable is just a pair of hair-thin glass fibers surrounded by plastic jackets, with a molded plastic cable-end connector to guide the fibers into the fiber port.
• The cost of these 50/125 multimode fiber-pair cables is less than the cost of HSSDC (High Speed Serial Data Connector) copper cables.
• The LC fiber connector is smaller than the HSSDC connector, thus allowing for future Myrinet/PCI interfaces that will have multiple ports through the PCI faceplate.

The Myricom team is very pleased to be able to offer this improvement in the Myrinet physical cabling.

The VCSEL Revolution: This transition to all-fiber Myrinet became feasible due to recent advances in the technology and production of VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser) optical-fiber transceivers.

VCSEL devices are truly a revolution for optical fiber. Earlier semiconductor laser devices, such as Fabry lasers, are called "edge emitters," because the light is emitted from the edge surface after the chip is broken off of a wafer. The fabrication yield on these edge-emitting lasers was poor, and the devices could be tested only after the chips were diced off of the wafer. As the name would suggest, VCSELs emit light vertically from the wafer surface. The yields are more typical of those achieved in standard semiconductor processes, and the devices can be tested on the wafer. Thus, VCSEL devices lend themselves to the same manufacturing efficiencies as other semiconductor devices, and can be produced at much lower cost than earlier semiconductor lasers. VCSEL devices are also typically more reliable than earlier semiconductor lasers.

Myricom entered into an agreement with E2O, a leading manufacturer of VCSEL optical-fiber transceivers, for E2O to supply the optical-fiber transceivers used in Myricom's products. Myricom's tests and pilot-production lots using these E2O transceivers show that these components exhibit exceptional quality, performance, and operating margins. High Temperature Operating Life data indicates that these E2O transceivers will also exhibit very high reliability.

These VCSEL transceivers use light at a wavelength of 850nm, not visible to the human eye. The transceivers are Class I Laser Products. Optical-fiber components with this classification pose no threat of biological damage.

23 July 2001