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The converging bandwidth and form-factor demands of data center, PC interconnect, and consumer electronics has led to an industry-wide drive to re-package parallel optics in an easy-to-use cable bundle; the active optical cable (AOC). Cynics may point out that there have been efforts like this before, but better lasers and improvements in both fiber media and the optoelectronics inside transceiver modules suggest that this time around AOCs will generate significant new business revenues for the optical networking business.
As a result, AOC technology is attracting interest from some of the biggest name in fiber optic networking components and modules including Finisar, Intel, and Tyco, as well as more specialist companies such as Lightwire, Luxtera, Reflex Photonics, Tyco and Zarlink. Meanwhile, the AOC "movement" has achieved added credibility through the decision of the Small Form Factor group within the T11 Technical Committee, to standardize a common module for Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, SAS, and Ethernet, called SFF-8436. By attaching such a physical device to an optical fiber during manufacturing, the developer of an AOC allows a customer to remove a copper-based pluggable transceiver and plug in an optical replacement. For the unsophisticated owner of a PC or server, clustering a device with AOC can be as simple as connecting an Ethernet cable. And while the initial markets for AOCs will all be very-short reach, several firms are already developing AOCs with reaches capable of supporting campus networks.
All this sounds very exciting; a new opportunity at a time when the optical networking business is going through hard times again. However, optical networking has overreached in the marketplace in the past and with disastrous results.
With this in mind, this report provides a realistic assessment of the prospects for AOCs in all the markets to which it is being targeted; data centers and enterprise networks, home theater and consumer electronics, signage, instrumentation, and personal electronics. As part of its goal to analyze and quantify the market for AOCs in this sector, CIR also compares AOC to other low-cost optical interfaces (including the simplified serial optics embodied in the new USB 3.0.) and also the latest in copper connectivity.
The report contains a granular five-year forecast of the AOC market with a consideration of multiple scenarios in new - but potentially large - markets such as personal computing and home video. It also considers supply chain issues and how firms that have traditionally supplied products for high-end data center or telecom applications can break into mass markets of this kind.
Although this report covers a new area, it draws on CIR's decades-long experience on covering opportunities in the transceiver/transponder and laser business and we believe that it will be essential reading for strategic planners and marketing managers at manufacturers of cabling, components, transceiver/transponders, equipment and consumer electronics.
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