Altera has announced the interoperability of its Stratix IV GT FPGAs with 40G QSFP (Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable) optical modules from Avago Technologies. QSFP optical modules provide 40Gbit/s data rates across a single link of fibre-optic cable. Leveraging the 11.3Gbit/s embedded transceivers featured in the FPGAs, designers can now take advantage of the flexibility and performance benefits of the FPGAs to bridge 40G QSFP optical modules to other devices in their line cards and increase overall system bandwidth.
QSFP is an advanced, hot-pluggable interface for high-performance switches, routers, servers, and host bus adapters used in computing and telecommunication applications. The interface is a compact, four-high-speed-channel, Z-axis pluggable interface supporting data rates up to 40Gbit/s (4 lanes x 10Gbit/s). The FPGA's 11.3Gbit/s transceivers connect directly to the 40G QSFP optical module without the need of bridging chips.
The modules are suitable for designers of high-performance networking and telecommunications systems. The multiple 11.3Gbit/s transceivers featured in the FPGAs give designers the opportunity to connect eight QSFP optical modules to a single FPGA and transport up to 320Gbit/s of aggregate data in their system. Obtaining this same level of performance using FPGAs with sub-10Gbit/s transceivers requires the use of 32 SFP+ optical modules.
The company achieved interoperability with 40G QSFP optical modules by using a Stratix IV GT FPGA development board. The transmitter and receiver in the development board were connected through SMA cables to two QSFP boards featuring 40G QSFP modules from Avago Technologies. The QSFP modules are connected by 30m of OM2 multimode optical fibre cable assembly.
