Point2 Technology is a hot startup co-founded by Marvell, Nvidia and Samsung alumni. They’re disrupting the data center interconnect market with their agile, cost-effective solutions. Founded nine years ago, the company’s focus is on meeting the increasing demand for higher performance data transport solutions. Point2 Technology, which focuses on similar technology development, recently raised $55 million in venture funding. Backed with a significant investment from Molex, the startup is poised to change how data centers are designed and operated.
The company’s disruptive approach to the market is centered around developing exciting new ultracapacitor-based cable systems that outperform conventional optical solutions by a mile. Overall, Point2’s technology consumes one-third of the energy currently required by optical systems. It does all of this incredible efficiency at about the same cost. On their systems, latencies are one-thousandth of today’s technologies. As a result, they represent an attractive option for data centers looking to increase performance.
Revolutionary Cable Technology
Point2 Technology’s cables run eight e-Tube fibers, each of which can transmit more than 200 gigabits per second. This construction allows the e-Tube cable to occupy only half the volume of a typical 32-gauge copper cable. At the same time, it increases its range to 20 meters! The innovative structure represents a huge improvement in data transmission efficiency.
The e-Tube cable is made of a single silicon chip that translates incoming digital data into modulated millimeter-wave frequencies. An integrated antenna then launches these frequencies into a compatible waveguide, allowing for large amounts of data to be transferred at laser-like speeds. This technology doesn’t just improve reach — it boasts a superior performance over copper cables, which usually experience a high degree of loss across longer runs.
“Customers love fiber. What they hate is the photonics,” stated Dave Welch, an industry expert. This sentiment reflects the frustration often experienced with outdated fiber-optic deployments, further signaling the demand for disruptive solutions such as Point2’s technology.
Point2 Technology has some pretty exciting stuff goin’ on though! Later this year, they’ll begin chip production for a new 1.6-terabit-per-second cable, increasing their product line significantly. This cable will feature eight slender polymer waveguides, each capable of carrying 448 gigabits per second using two frequencies: 90 gigahertz and 225 GHz.
Collaboration and Innovation
Point2 Technology has collaborated with engineers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology on similar technology. Collectively, they’re smashing down barriers to improve development of new and better products. Leveraging the advanced, high-performance 28-nanometer CMOS technology, this partnership promises to redefine the limits of advanced data center interconnects.
The company’s second-generation cable is even more impressive, with losses as low as 0.3 decibels per meter. This performance amounts to an implicit 99.6% improvement over the loss normally incurred with copper cables transmitting at 224 Gb/s. This kind of innovation is badly needed by data centers seeking to push efficiency as far as possible and drive down the cost of operations.
“You start with passive copper, and you do everything you can to run in passive copper as long as you can,” explained Don Barnetson, highlighting the transitional phase many data centers face as they adapt to new technologies. Point2’s cables represent one possible future that connects the present-day state of technology with what’s to come.
Electronics offer reliability advantages over optics. As Welch noted, “Electronics have been demonstrated to be inherently more reliable than optics.” This reliability factor is an imperative for data centers that demand 100 percent uptime and no tolerance for downtime.
Market Impact and Future Prospects
Point2 Technology’s inventions have the potential to turn the data center connectivity landscape on its head with these innovations. The firm massively reduces energy use and expense with its platforms. This combination of cost savings, greater access, and less latency make it an Industry Changer situation.
Her startup’s beautiful, shiny, optimistic but realistic vision lined up perfectly with an emerging trend. This trend favors solutions that meet somewhere in between traditional copper and optical technologies. As businesses of all stripes come to lean more on data-driven operations, the need for quick, economical interconnect paths will only continue to increase.