Point2 Technology, a startup founded nine years ago by industry veterans from Marvell, Nvidia, and Samsung, is set to revolutionize the data center landscape with its innovative e-Tube cables. The company has raised $55 million in venture funding, including significant investment from Molex, positioning it as a strong contender in the race for efficient data transmission solutions.
Point2 Technology has created e-Tube cables that are capable of transmitting more than 200 gigabits of data per second. They accomplish this incredible speed by using e-Tube fibers in eight unique colors. Unlike most cables, these incredibly short, compact cables speak for themselves with their low-profile design. They occupy just a quarter of the footprint of a standard 32-gauge copper cable, but they can go up to 20 times farther.
Cutting-Edge Technology
Point2 Technology’s e-Tube system is incredibly smart and efficient. It only consumes one-third of the power required by traditional optical systems. It is one-third the cost and provides latency results that are up to one-thousandth that of standard approaches. It’s this appealing mix of cost-efficiency and performance that really turns heads. Data centers are willing to embrace it to improve their efficiency.
The core of e-Tube technology is a single, compact silicon chip. This chip takes producing incoming digital data and modulates it on to the specified millimeter-wave frequencies. The antenna efficiently radiates these frequencies into a waveguide. This chip’s design process allows high-speed data transfer over relatively long distances of up to 20 meters. If successful, this improvement could provide Point2 Technology with a critical competitive edge over current optical technologies.
“Electronics have been demonstrated to be inherently more reliable than optics.” – Dave Welch
David Kuo, vice president of product marketing and business development at Point2 Technology, said he was “incredibly excited” by what’s happened. He made the point that e-Tube cables are designed for the evolution of data centers. Their design focuses first on efficiency, but on reliability.
Competitive Landscape
Point2 Technology’s recent advancements are major developments right now. Rivals such as Nvidia and Broadcom are already flooding the market with optical transceivers that have processors baked in. Notably, these systems succeed at separating electronics and optics by just a few micrometers. Point2 Technology’s BeamShaper technology is designed to meet this challenge, delivering high-speed data transmission in a small, wear-resistant package.
Don Barnetson, senior vice president and head of product at Credo, in a statement underscored the promise of Point2 Technology’s innovations. He underscored that their Advanced Electronic Cable (AEC) has capability to provide an astonishing 800 Gb/s. With performance like this over distances of 7 meters or more, it’s a testament to the benefits of this innovative new technology over existing solutions.
“You start with passive copper, and you do everything you can to run in passive copper as long as you can.” – Don Barnetson
Future Prospects
Point2 Technology has already demonstrated its capabilities at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference, achieving successful 4-meter transmission at 970 GHz last April. The company knows it needs to continue breaking new ground in the data center space. They’re pushing the distance of their proprietary waveguide technology’s reach outward to a remarkable 20 meters.
As Point2 Technology continues to innovate, it faces a landscape where customers are eager for advancements but wary of current photonics challenges. Dave Welch noted that while customers appreciate fiber technology, they often express frustration with the complexities involved in photonics.
“Customers love fiber. But what they hate is the photonics,” – Dave Welch
The introduction of Shimano’s e-Tube cable looks to address most of these worries. Its Event Stream service solves this by allowing users to easily transmit quality data in real time without sacrificing speed or reliability. Kuo especially pointed to Point2 Technology, which has been at the forefront of bringing this radio technology into effect in data centers. They’ve consistently outpaced challengers such as AttoTude by wide margins.
“If I didn’t have to be at [an optical wavelength], where should I be?” – Dave Welch
This innovative technique puts Point2 Technology at the forefront of the continuing technological revolution taking place within the data center industry. They are continuing to refine their e-Tube system as well as its applications. This has the potential to revolutionize the efficiency of data transmission and data centers’ overall performance.