XLoom reduces costs with Altera FPGA board

BANGALORE, INDIA: Altera Corp. announced that XLoom Communications is leveraging its Stratix II GX FPGA signal integrity development kit to provide a unique bit error rate (BER) testing environment.

Altera’s FPGA-based development board enables XLoom to test its chip-scale optoelectronic interconnect modules more cost-effectively compared to traditional BER testing equipment. This unique testing environment provides a closer representation of actual customer conditions while delivering additional space and energy savings.

The Stratix II GX FPGA signal integrity development kit delivers a more than 90 percent savings over traditional BER testers that cost as much as $100,000. In addition, the small footprint of the Stratix II GX development kit helps maximize lab space while delivering a significant reduction in energy consumption and minimizing set-up and support time for engineers.

“Our AVDAT 4X 20Gbps drop-in optical connector is thoroughly tested at various data speeds of up to 5 Gbps per channel. Previous BER testing equipment was bulky, costly and required the use of nearly our entire production lab,” said Avner Badihi, president and CTO, XLoom. “Altera’s Stratix II GX FPGA development board has a much lower cost in absolute terms and requires less lab space and power, which greatly helps our cost effectiveness. By the end of this year, our plans are to have 10 to 15 Stratix II GX FPGA boards set up, with an expected savings of more than one million dollars in equipment and energy costs and a savings of more than 400 square feet of lab space.”

XLoom implemented the unique BER testing procedures using Stratix II GX development boards for the design and production of its AVDAT 4X optical 10GbaseCX4 transceiver. The Stratix II GX FPGAs were instrumental in enabling XLoom to develop InfiniBand SDR and DDR (20Gbps) connectivity and 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity for the AVDAT 4X.

“XLoom’s innovative use of our Stratix II GX development kit is yet another example of how companies are applying our FPGA products to cost-effectively address the difficult challenges they face,” said David Greenfield, senior director of product marketing, high-end products at Altera. “We are pleased to be able to help XLoom and other industry pioneers bring innovations to their space and succeed in their markets.”