Newcomer ClariPhy reveals plan for reducing fiber costs

Last September I introduced you to ClariPhy, a start-up that was at that time just peeking its head out of stealth mode to comment on the fiber-vs.-copper debate that I was refereeing through this newsletter. Now the company is ready to come out of stealth mode altogether, with more details of what the company is all about.

This week marks ClariPhy’s official debut, and the Irvine, Calif., company is claiming to have developed the first DSP-based PHY for 10Gbps over fiber using a CMOS process.

If you’ll recall, ClariPhy came down on the fiber side of the debate, saying that if someone could just get the cost of the optics down, the benefits of fiber would far outweigh the benefits of copper-based networks.

ClariPhy is hanging its hat on 10GBase-LRM, which is close to becoming an IEEE standard. It uses a single laser and set of optics, rather than the four lasers and four sets of optics of the earlier 10GBase-LX4 standard.

ClariPhy is also using CMOS to get the cost down, and is looking to the SFP+ serial form factor as well. CEO Paul Voois says he expects Cisco to go from XAUI to a serial interface, and that the rest of the industry will follow, creating a market for SFP+ and breaking the “cost barriers.”

ClariPhy’s technology would be used in switches, server adapters and optical modules. Future applications could also include backplane transceivers, wireless, and storage networking. The company has raised $13 million in funding and has 25 employees.