User 123920

Will New QDR InfiniBand Leap Ahead of 40 Gigabit Ethernet?

I believe your price per port assumes empty QFSP slots. Granted, the copper QSFP cables are inexpensive, but support very limited distances for QDR speeds (5m is all I see today, with a likely eventual max of 7m), which means optical solutions will be required for distances greater than 7m.

Optical modules for InfiniBand are expensive just like optical modules for Ethernet are expensive. The need to bring optical costs down is what drove the idea of integrated optical solutions like Intel's Connects cables.

The promise of Intel Connects DDR optical cables never panned out, because it took years to mature (and ultimately was sold to EMCORE). Let's hope the EMCORE Connects QDR cables mature much more quickly.

Also, let's hope the InfiniBand and other use cases for QSFP meke it a mature phy for 40 Gbps Ethernet, as 40GE should be ideal for 10GE switch uplinks.