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To: David A. Lethe who wrote (3161)	4/24/2001 12:47:46 PM
From: Joe Wagner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4808

Thanks David, time for me to rethink the possible scenarios with that thought in mind. Maybe a DWDM module that has 32 channel slots for 32 easily replaceable laser modules, would be more reliable and desirable. 32 Channels would still be combined over one fiber, and you could have 16 DWDM modules per 512 channel Director's Director. Not to go too overboard, but I wonder if someday you could have a Data Center of nothing but giant Directors that control a whole Metro Telco network, that has transformed into one giant fabric. Central Switching where every peer to peer PC and server, in the geographical region, is on the fabric. One last thought, maybe the Director itself will become a rack, with dense modules, like dense servers, that fill the rack at the Data Center. In a Director area of the rack, certain Director specific backplane modules, would connect the switch modules and the rack mounted DWDM modules (that have slots for laser modules). Joe

To: David A. Lethe who wrote (3161)	4/24/2001 10:58:22 PM
From: J Fieb	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4808

What single point of failure.... An intriguing story may lie behind Xanoptix Inc., a startup that yesterday announced its first product -- a massively parallel transceiver (see Xanoptix Unveils 200 Gbit/s Transceiver ). The story goes that Xanoptix was formed by a venture capital firm that was turned down as a potential investor in TeraConnect, a spinoff of Sanders, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary now owned by BAE Systems (see Lockheed Spins Off Transmitter Startup ). Is that clear? The unidentified VC firm simply wouldn't take no for an answer. Rather than retire gracefully, it hired ten of Sanders' key researchers and set up Xanoptix. Two independent sources, one of them claiming to have connections with BAE, gave Light Reading this version of events. Jim Norrod, Xanoptix' CEO, declines to comment. But he also declines to identify Xanoptix' investors, which have already pumped $35 million into his company, suggesting that there's something unusual going on. Xanoptix is currently pursuing another round of finance. Norrod says he doesn't know whether TeraConnect is developing a competing product, as our sources suggest. "I have no idea what TeraConnect is doing, and I don't care," he miffs. "We're too busy developing our own business." However, Xanoptix' CTO, John Trezza, former head of the electro-optics group at Sanders, says he took his entire team with him when he left there. The implication is that TeraConnect doesn't have the expertise to develop a massively parallel transceiver, so it must be working on something else. So, what’s all the fuss about? Xanoptix' new product, the XTM-1, could be used to create low-cost, high-performance campus networks. It’s a module that promises to carry vast amounts of data over bunches of fiber for distances of up to 4 kilometers. Think of it as Very Short Range (VSR) Sonet on steroids (see OIF Sets Short-Range Sonet Standard ) The XTM-1 could form the basis of optional interface cards for high-performance equipment from the likes of Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO - message board) and Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR - message board). Each XTM-1 unit interfaces to 72 multimode fibers: 36 coming in, 36 going out. That makes 108 active devices in the module. No, our math isn't at fault. There are 36 detectors and 72 lasers -- each laser has a spare, because the low manufacturing yields and laser reliability require it, according to Norrod. Though that may sound like a black mark against Xanoptix' lasers, it's worth noting that the manufacture of laser arrays is a notoriously low-yield process. Most laser array makers are putting four, or at most 12, vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) on a chip (see Laser Blazers ). h its array of 72 VCSELs, Xanoptix has upped the ante more than a little. The startup also says it's got a method for making arrays of distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, rather than VCSELs. "DFBs will give us the technology to go further than four kilometers," says Norrod. So this array stuff will be, my array is bigger than your array? Also DFB arrays. Come on EMKR make those long wavelength VSCELs with nice yields and take more market! — Pauline Rigby, senior editor, Light Reading lightreading.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------