At STH, we talk about silicon photonics every few weeks. We first saw Intel’s 100G Silicon Photonics module at OCP Summit 2017 when 100GbE networking was still considered high-end. At Intel Interconnect Day 2019 we got to see volume production 100Gbps CWDM4 QSFP28 silicon photonics modules. Now, you can buy the modules used on eBay for under $6 each.
Get an Intel Silicon Photonics 100GbE SFP28 500m Optic for $6
At OCP Summit 2017, we saw Intel showing off a QSFP28 100G module that it said was based on silicon photonics. This had the light green CWDM pull tab. In 2017, these 100G CWDM4 modules were just ramping production.
At Intel Interconnect Day 2019, we got to see the expanding silicon photonics portfolio that had grown since the 2017 announcement.
In 2019, Intel said it was in production with CWDM4 optic and it was ramping to a 2M unit/ year run rate. It was not on the slide, but perhaps Intel’s biggest customer at the time was Facebook. Each data center with tens of thousands of nodes and switch ports used a large number of optics. At the time, Intel told STH that its large hyper-scale customer was seeing a lower failure rate than with the traditionally manufactured optics.
Although many simply assume an optical transceiver is a pluggable module, inside there are a number of components to make the transceiver go from electrical signals to optical signals.
Here is a look at how these modules are made.
Integrating all of the components onto a single die means many fewer components in the transceiver. At the time, 100G was state-of-the-art so fewer steps in manufacturing were thought to lower failure rates and costs.
Now, one can get these directly on ebay for $5.95 each and a lower per-unit cost for additional units. Here is a link (Affiliate to ebay) to the units we purchased.
The units themselves are marked as used, and came with packaging saying “ITRenew”. ITRenew was focused on decommissioning and reusing hyper-scale hardware before it was bought by Iron Mountain. Still, we have purchased a few dozen from this seller that appear to be in good condition and work. Switch compatibility is going to mostly be for non-vendor-locked switches. These modules also run fairly hot, so ensure that your switch/ server has proper airflow.
Final Words
If you just need a handful of 100G optics, these are a fairly good deal. We have been buying them for some time, and our forum readers have a thread on them that you can find here.
If you are getting into white box networking or just want a cool $6 transceiver, then these might be worth a shot. These may not be what you want to install in a mission-critical data center. On the other hand, they are likely fine for a lab environment and reasonably inexpensive to get spares for as well.
Wow! Silicon photonics on the cheap! I just might consider buying one for my growing chip collection! Thanks for the “recommendation”! :-)
Is there a mistake in the article? It says 2km optics for $6 but the listing and the forums say the model is only 500m? According to this page[1] from Intel, the SPTSBP_CLCXX models are numbered so the “_” is a 2 for 500m, 3 for 2km and 4 for 10km so it would seem the $6 price tag only applies to 500m optics, not the 2km versions. This article also has other references to 2km but it would seem they should say 500m instead.
I mean there’s only one left on eBay as I write this, but they still have some bulk lots of five each and 10 each left.
[1]: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/silicon-photonics/optical-transceiver-100g-cwdm4-qsfp28-brief.html
Normally I’d say why. But for $5.95 with free shipping I will maybe pick up a few. If they work great. They’re Intel at least. If not, I’ll just put it on the shelf. It’s $5.95 so it’s like the cheapest thing ever on STH.
For those who don’t know. These use Single Mode LC fiber cables so you don’t need MPO
Picked one up and it works with the Celestica DX010.