Point2, a tech startup founded by industry veterans from Marvell, Nvidia, and Samsung. The company says it has taken important advances in cable technology to increase data center efficiency. Point2 worked alongside engineers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Collectively, they announced an unprecedented study in the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. Shimano’s new e-Tube cable should change the data transmission game. Its unusual design and capabilities provide a jumping-off point for a big leap beyond optical technologies.
Additionally, the e-Tube cable uses 28-nanometer complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. This technology isn’t new—it’s been widely used since 2010—this technology has been brilliantly applied to achieve excellent performance. The e-Tube is only 8.1 millimeters in diameter. It takes up just half the space of a typical Active Electrical Cable (AEC), making it ideal for applications where space is at a premium.
Key Features of the e-Tube Cable
Point2’s smart cable includes eight distinct e-Tube fibers, each able to carry more than 200 gigabits of information per second. This extraordinary new technology provides a vast data stream in something the size of a shoebox. Our system operates at a fraction of the power, at one-third that of optical systems. It provides massive cost efficiency too, costing only a third of the price of conventional replacements. Of significance, e-Tube cable has one-thousandth the latency of current optical technologies.
The second-generation e-Tube cable is 40% thinner and features fibers that are roughly twice the width of a human hair. This new cable design greatly reduces losses to a mere 0.3 decibels per meter. Point2’s co-founder and today’s CEO, Dave Welch, brags that this groundbreaking achievement makes it possible to transmit data 20 meters. This new capability is a huge breakthrough in technology. He emphasized that this distance “happens to be a beautiful distance for scale-up in data centers,” suggesting that the e-Tube could serve as a vital component in larger infrastructures.
Performance Comparisons
Unlike traditional copper cables, the e-Tube occupies just half the diameter of a 32-gauge copper cable. It’s huge effective reach, going up to 20 times further, is very impressive. This vastly improved performance makes Point2’s technology a strong contender to replace optical technology in the packages of transceivers to processors. The challenge, Welch noted, is barely discussed, and that’s for photonics. This positive outlook is a testament to just how large of a market impact Point2’s innovations could have.
Don Barnetson, another key figure at Point2, noted the enduring preference for passive copper solutions, stating, “You start with passive copper, and you do everything you can to run in passive copper as long as you can.” This methodology focuses on the overall long term transition to new technologies, like the e-Tube. With these innovations, we’re headed towards more reliable solutions in the years to come.
Venture Funding and Future Prospects
Point2 has done something remarkable since it first launched nine years ago. The company then raised $55 million in venture funding, notable for the deep support of major industry players—most prominently Molex, a major manufacturer of computer cables and connections. This financial support is a clear vote of confidence for Point2’s vision and the transformative potential of its technology.
Back last April, Point2 demonstrated their incredible 4-meter wide-area transmission capability. They did it at an incredibly high rate, 970 GHz, during the Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC) held in San Francisco last week. This recognition represents the excellent technology expertise that underlies the e-Tube system. It provides assurance that the system is prepared for real-world use in commercial data centers.
As organizations increasingly seek efficient solutions to meet growing data demands, Point2’s technology could gain traction in environments where performance and reliability are paramount. Welch asserted that “electronics have been demonstrated to be inherently more reliable than optics,” suggesting that the shift towards electronic-based transmission systems may be inevitable.