Component Suppliers Announce 10 Gb/s Agreement

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 26 -- Eight networking component suppliers -- Agere Systems, Agilent Technologies, JDS Uniphase, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, OpNext, Optillion and Tyco Electronics -- have announced "X2," a new multisource agreement (MSA) for smaller-form-factor 10 Gigabit-per-second (Gb/s) pluggable fiber optic transceivers. Transceivers developed using this new specification will reduce board space on line cards for optical networking systems.

The X2 specification supports multiple 10 Gb/s applications, providing network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) with one platform that addresses several 10 Gb/s markets. While another MSA also specifies a smaller version of the popular XENPAK transceiver, the X2 MSA has stronger industry support and is more compatible with the existing XENPAK MSA specification, the companies said. X2 is initially focused on optical links to 10 kilometers and is targeted at "second generation" 10 Gb/s enterprise, storage and telecom applications that do not require the thermal capacity provided by XENPAK.

The companies expect to begin shipping these new 10 Gb/s transceivers in the first half of 2003.