Date: 18/06/2012

First Thunderbolt active optical cables powered by Ensphere' optical transceiver

Ensphere has announced the first Thunderbolt active optical cables (AOC) are now entering the market using the Ensphere ESI-XVR10100 optical transceiver.

According to Hessam Mohajeri, Founder and CEO of Ensphere, “Optical cable suppliers know the importance of choosing high performance 10 Gbps optical engines with a careful balance of silicon CMOS performance, low power operation, and low profile products in order to meet the overall optical Thunderbolt™ design requirements. The first such cables to enter the market have chosen the Ensphere ESI-XVR10100 as an acknowledgement of our design and delivery capabilities.”

According to Shigeo Saito, Executive Officer, Deputy General Manager Electronics Business Unit and General Manager of Electronic Wire Division, Sumitomo Electric Industries, LTD. "Our first optical Thunderbolt cables chose an optical engine design based on the Ensphere ESI-XVR10100 due to its excellent match with our overall design requirements".

The ESI-XVR10100 optical transceiver device is suggested as ideal device for optical Thunderbolt cables with its two 10 Gbps lanes, including on-chip thermal sensors and VCSEL compensation logic to ensure the best overall performance. OEM customers can pre-program special operating characteristics into its OTP memory, and can slave up to four devices for applications requiring wider parallel interfaces. The ESI-XVR10100 is currently available in die form in production quantities.