ANRITSU AND KYOCERA COMPLETE PCI EXPRESS^® 5.0 OPTICAL SIGNAL TRANSMISSION TEST

Anritsu and KYOCERA have completed a successful PCI Express^®, 5.0 (PCIe^®5.0) optical transmission test using Anritsu’s Signal Quality Analyzer-R MP1900A and KYOCERA’s on-board optics module. This world’s first test converted a PCIe^® 5.0 (32 Gbps transmission speed) electrical signal into an optical signal using an end-point Add-in Card (AIC).

Anritsu and KYOCERA will publicly repeat the test live at OFC2023 (booth no. 6309) in San Diego, Calif., USA, from Tues., March 7 to Thurs., March 9, 2023.

Test Background
Advanced value-added services such as 5G, IoT and Cloud applications are spreading rapidly, creating unprecedented demand for faster data speeds and larger data capacities. However, today’s power-intensive datacenters face cost and sustainability issues as they increase transmission speeds and capacity.

This Anritsu/KYOCERA test converted an electrical signal into an optical signal at an early stage by mounting an on-board optics module close to the host (an MP1900A simulating a CPU output signal for test purposes). The test verified that the E/O-converted signal was transmitted at the PCIe^® 5.0 standard 32-Gbps speed to the endpoint located 25 meters from the host.

In addition, the successful optical signal transmission test proved the potential for this technology to reduce datacenter power consumption through lower signal loss. In the future, signal transmission between servers will not use Ethernet due to power consumption issues and latency. Instead, servers will use direct PCIe^® connections. Operators of next-generation datacenters using PCIe^® optical signal transmission will enjoy the business benefits of lower power consumption and reduced latency.

Demonstration Outline
The OFC2023 demonstration will introduce Anritsu’s MP1900A simulating the CPU host side and KYOCERA’s on-board optics module at an equipment connection with an endpoint AIC. Items “a” through “d” in the below figure are explained as follows:
 

a. The PCIe^® 5.0 electrical signal output from the MP1900A is converted into an optical signal by the on-board optics module before transmission. After optical transmission and reconversion back to an electrical signal by the on-board optics module at the 25m distant endpoint side, the electrical signal is connected to the AIC.
b. The AIC switches to Loopback Mode using the signal transmitted through the on-board optics modules by the MP1900A Link Training function.
c. The MP1900A receives the Loopback data from the AIC and confirms the data are error-free.
d. The optical signal transmitted from the on-board optics module is split and input to Anritsu’s Sampling Oscilloscope MP2110A for monitoring to verify that the PCIe^® 5.0 optical signal is transmitted correctly.