Inphi adds a laser driver to its 100-gigabit PAM-4 DSP

Inphi has detailed its second-generation Porrima chip family for 100-gigabit single-wavelength optical module designs.

Source: Inphi

The Porrima family of devices is targeted at the 400G DR4 and 400G FR4 specifications as well as 100-gigabit module designs that use 100-gigabit 4-level pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM-4). Indeed, the two module types can be combined when a 400-gigabit pluggable such as a QSFP-DD or an OSFP is used in breakout mode to feed four 100-gigabit modules using such form factors as the QSFP, uQSFP or SFP-DD.

The Gen2 family has been launched a year after the company first announced the Porrima. The original 400-gigabit and 100-gigabit Porrima designs each have three ICs: a PAM-4 digital signal processor (DSP), a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) and a laser-driver. 

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Inphi unveils a second 400G PAM-4 IC family

Inphi has announced the Vega family of 4-level, pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM-4) chips for 400-gigabit interfaces.

The 16nm CMOS Vega IC family is designed for enterprise line cards and is Inphi’s second family of 400-gigabit chips that support eight lanes of 50-gigabit PAM-4.

Its first 8x50-gigabit family, dubbed Polaris, is used within 400-gigabit optical modules and was announced at the OFC show held in Los Angeles in March.

“Polaris is a stripped-down low-power DSP targeted at optical module applications,” says Siddharth Sheth, senior vice president, networking interconnect at Inphi (pictured). “Vega, also eight by 50-gigabits, is aimed at enterprise OEMs for their line-card retimer and gearbox applications.”  

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