More dramatically, BitBlitz Communications Inc. announced the BBTX400 chip, which contains all the electronics for four XFP connections. This kind of chip could pave the way for quad or octal XFP cards, which could emerge as early as this spring, according to CEO Ed Rodriguez.
The chip supports either Ethernet or Sonet and consumes 5.2 watts, compared with 1.5 watts apiece for single-lane XFP electronics, says Rodriguez.
Finally, Network Elements recently announced "micromodule" technology that eventually could shrink a transceiver down to the size of a chip. This device would even attach to a board the way a chip does, using ball-grid-array connectors, doing away with the sliders and rails used in transceiver MSAs. "You can remove every last bit of mechanical cost out of the package," says Claude Denton, vice president of marketing.
Network Elements plans to use the technology for a 12km XFP module, but that's still in development. At OFC, the company will show a 300-pin-MSA module built using micromodule technology to create a very thin and inexpensive package.
Even after micromodules, the transceiver could shrink further. "Solder-on optics will be the next thing after XFP, and that's still some way out," Denton says.
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
