SCIENCE

Tektronix has announced a new optical sampling oscilloscope module for the Tektronix DSA8200 Digital Serial Analyzer Series that delivers the industry's leading optical sensitivity, noise, and dynamic range performance for characterization and validation testing of 16GFC Fibre Channel and 14GB FDR Infiniband communications standards.

Both Fibre Channel and Infiniband standards are designed for high-bandwidth applications and devices such as high-performance super-computing clusters, large databases, data center interconnect and migration, and solid-state disks or memory arrays. The new 80C14 module is the industry's highest performance testing solution for compliance verification from 8.5 - 14.063 Gb/s. 

"These latest optical standards bring higher performance and lower power consumption per bit over previous generations, driving demand and putting a premium on time to market," said Brian Reich, general manager, Performance Oscilloscopes, Tektronix. "With the new 80C14 optical module, we are moving quickly to give equipment suppliers the comprehensive test capabilities they need to deliver products based on the new standards."

The 80C14 optical sampling module is the newest member of the DSA8200 platform, supporting both single-mode and multi-mode fiber with RMS noise performance of 3 uW, dynamic range of 19 dBand Optical sensitivity to -14 dBm, providing industry's leading signal integrity performance for increased mask margin, resulting in better yields. The new module includes optical reference receivers that are ITU and T11-compliant for evaluation and characterization of the recently completed 16GFC Fibre Channel standard and 14 GB FDR Infiniband channels.

Finisar Corporation recently demonstrated the industry's first FDR Infiniband active optical cable able to transmit 56 Gb/s data across four lanes of traffic at 14 Gb/s each. Behind the scenes, Finisar used the Tektronix DSA8200 platform to complete performance verification testing.

"The new Fibre Channel standard represents a significant step forward toward meeting the bandwidth and link distance requirement of high-performance computing and large database applications," said Tony Pearson, Director of Product Line Management, Finisar Corporation, a global technology leader for fiber optic components and subsystems. "With its high signal integrity, wide dynamic range and support for the latest standards, the Tektronix DSA8200 plays an important role in helping Finisar be first to market with our 16GFC SFP+ and QSFP transceivers that meet leading-edge networking demands."

Pricing and Availability
U.S. list price for the 80C14 optical sampling module starts at $48,100 MSRP. The new model is available for order beginning March 7, 2011.