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Cisco Optics Podcast Episode 1
How did we go from 1G to 400G? The history of pluggable optics, a conversation with Ray Nering, part 1 of 4.
Have you ever wondered why pluggable optics exist? Have you ever wondered what acronyms like QSFP, LR4, FEC, and PAM4 actually mean? In this first episode I start a conversation with my colleague Ray Nering. He explains to me how a lot of these came to be, starting from the days of 1Gb GBIC all the way up to today’s 400Gb QSFP-DD. This is the first part of a four-episode conversation with Ray. In this episode we start at the beginning, with GBIC and SFP. He also talks about why pluggables were needed when they started and a whole bunch more.
– Pat Chou, Cisco Optics Product Manager
Ray Nering is a colleague of mine in the Cisco Optics product management group and over the years has held senior management positions at other companies in the optics space, such as AT&T Microelectronics, Lucent, JDSU, Agere, Optium, and Lightwire.
Listen to Episode 1
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Timestamps
3:48 How did pluggable optics start
6:34 The problem with early non-pluggables
8:56 Pay as you grow model
11:00 What is SERDES
12:48 What happens when your data center grows
Music credits
Sunny Morning by FSM Team
Upbeat by Mixaund
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Additional resources
Good afternoon! I’m looking for authorized vendors for the GLC-TE++. Any guidance you can provide is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Hi Dave, Cisco offers that pluggable transceiver and thoroughly qualifies it on Cisco hosts. I suggest reaching out to your Cisco sales rep for more info. Here is the datasheet: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/interfaces-modules/gigabit-ethernet-gbic-sfp-modules/datasheet-c78-366584.html The Product ID is GLC-TE.