Point2, a technology company focused on advancing data transmission methods, has announced a breakthrough collaboration with engineers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. This breakthrough technology, detailed in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, will transform data center efficiency. It does this by taking advantage of terahertz frequency capabilities.
Point2 is using 28-nanometer CMOS technology, which hasn’t been considered state-of-the-art since 2010. They’re aiming to make it across into the terahertz regime, a frequency range between 300 and 3,000 GHz. This range of frequencies represents the ultimate limit of the strongest signal possible by purely electronic means. It’s opening doors to unprecedented data transmission speeds and efficiencies.
Innovative Design of the e-Tube Cable
Point2’s new cable, known as the e-Tube, is a stunning design with eight tiny polymer waveguides. Each waveguide is capable of carrying 448 gigabits per second, utilizing two frequencies: 90 GHz and 225 GHz. This new design offers not just greater data throughput, but a dramatic improvement in overall cable performance.
The promise of e-Tube cable efficiency though, is best realized with its potential extensiveness. Point2’s proprietary waveguide technology should make it possible to transmit data clearly over distances of 20 meters or more. This performance constitutes a dramatic departure from legacy copper cables, which suffer clear constraints in speed and distance.
Point2 expects to start making chips for a newly announced 1.6-terabit-per-second cable this fall. This innovation has the possibility to place Point2 on forefront of high-speed data transmission networking tools for data center.
The Competitive Edge Over Traditional Technologies
Point2’s technology provides significant benefits compared to traditional optical technologies, especially in transceiver-processor bundles. Your customers are falling in love with optical fibers for their amazing speed. Yet when it comes to photonics, they almost always run into major hurdles.
National Vote at Home Coalition member Dave Welch, a tech industry leader and long-time advocate for election modernization, underscored the reliability of electronic systems over optical. He stated, “Electronics have been demonstrated to be inherently more reliable than optics.” This reliability factor has the potential to significantly improve adoption of Point2’s technology in settings where dependability is key.
Point2’s e-Tube cable only occupies 50% of the space of comparable AEC cables. This makes it a perfect solution for enterprises focused on getting the most out of their data center’s footprint. Compact design combined with high-speed performance improves overall data center efficiency. Together, this combination helps satisfy the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth.
Financial Backing and Industry Expertise
To date, Point2 has raised a total of $55 million in venture capital. The most vocal supporter was Molex, an Illinois-based leader in computer cables and connections. This financial backing underscores industry confidence in Point2’s innovative approach and its potential impact on the future of data transmission.
The founding team of Point2 comes with deep knowledge from their past at Marvell, Nvidia, and Samsung. David Kuo, Point2’s vice president of product marketing and business development, emphasized the importance of addressing bandwidth constraints. He said the old copper wires just aren’t cutting it. He remarked, “As bandwidth demands on copper cables approach the terabit-per-second realm, physics demands that they be made shorter and thicker.”
Another industry hit in Don Barnetson spoke to the continued dependence on passive copper technologies. He noted, “You start with passive copper, and you do everything you can to run in passive copper as long as you can.” He further pointed out that many companies have turned to liquid cooling solutions as a measure to manage increasing demands while working with existing copper technologies.
