Inphi Announces Commercial Availability and Production Ramp of COLORZ® II 400ZR and ZR+ QSFP-DD Transceivers

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inphi Corporation (NASDAQ: IPHI), a leader in high-speed data movement interconnects, today announced the commercial availability and production ramp of COLORZ® II 400ZR, the industry’s first QSFP-DD pluggable coherent transceivers for cloud data center interconnects (DCIs). For the first time, cloud operators can connect their data centers within a region with high performance, low power, small form factor 400G coherent transceivers without the need for a separate transport box. A longer reach variant, COLORZ II 400G ZR+, which extends the reach of COLORZ II from 120km to about 400km, is in final stages of qualification and expected to be commercially available starting next month.

The ever-increasing bandwidth demand between data centers, driven by streaming video, social networking, cloud computing, AI, and, more recently, work from home, is motivating mega-cloud data center operators to deploy high-density, low latency and low power DWDM links to connect multiple data centers within region and allow them to behave like a single data center.

“The ability to provide high bandwidth connectivity in a small, cost effective form factor expands the reach of open cloud networking,” said Dr. Hacene Chaouch, Distinguished Engineer at Arista Networks. “We are pleased with commercial availability of 400G ZR product suite to transform the way cloud titans and service providers connect their regional data centers.”

“COLORZ II 400G ZR and ZR+ are the enabling technology for next-gen data center interconnects,” said Josef Berger, AVP, Product Marketing, Optical Interconnect at Inphi. “This is an important step in realizing our vision of 'The Cloud is the Network™'. The commercial availability and production ramp of COLORZ II 400G ZR and ZR+ demonstrates Inphi's industry leadership as we continue to create solutions that dramatically increase the speed of data movement, while keeping the power and cost low.”

According to market research firm Cignal AI, shipments of 400G ZR and ZR+ modules will expand at a >100% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) and provide one-third of worldwide WDM connectivity in 2025.

“The commercial availability of COLORZ II 400ZR makes IP over DWDM viable for network operators,” said Andrew Schmitt, Directing Analyst. “This enables an entirely new type of distributed data center architecture for the cloud and is the first step towards broad adoption in both cloud and traditional service provider networks.”

Inphi’s COLORZ II represents the culmination of several important industry firsts:

• First 400G single-chip, coherent silicon PIC to include all transmit and receive functions
• First low-cost, passive alignment of fiber to the PIC using traditional optics, eliminating the need for complex active alignment
• First low-power, high-performance 7nm CMOS-based coherent DSP enabling 400ZR and 400ZR+ extended reach 100/200/300/400G modes
• First integrated, industry-standard firmware management interface enabling full performance monitoring of DCI or transport systems without direct optical module support

400ZR is an interoperable standard with broad industry support. Motivated by the need to lower the cost and power consumption of DCI, leading cloud operators, OEMs, and module and chip vendors have joined the Optical Interworking Forum in the development of an industry standard for 400ZR. COLORZ II 400ZR is the first pluggable module product available in volume designed for this standard.

COLORZ II 400ZR and 400ZR+ enable a dramatic increase in switch rack capacity while reducing power consumption by up to 80%. COLORZ II delivers up to 14.4Tb of capacity per rack unit, compared to 2.4Tb or 3.6Tb per RU for competing solutions, representing a 4-6x increase in throughput per chassis. COLORZ II ZR and ZR+ achieve drastically improved density through higher levels of silicon photonics integration as well as much lower power consumption across all coherent transceiver elements.

About Inphi
Inphi Corporation is a leader in high-speed data movement interconnects. We move big data – fast, throughout the globe, between data centers, and inside data centers. Inphi’s expertise in signal integrity results in reliable data delivery, at high speeds, over a variety of distances. As data volumes ramp exponentially due to video streaming, social media, cloud-based services, and wireless infrastructure, the need for speed has never been greater. That’s where we come in. Customers rely on Inphi’s solutions to develop and build out the Service Provider and Cloud infrastructures, and data centers of tomorrow. To learn more about Inphi, visit www.inphi.com or connect with Inphi on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Inphi, the Inphi logo and Think fast are registered trademarks of Inphi Corporation. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

Corporate Contact:
Kim Markle
Inphi Corporation
[email protected]