hi rick, you mentioned you don't need the power of roach2 but you need sfp+.
besides purchasing an sfp+ to cx4 adapter, you might consider populating roach2 with a smaller less expensive fpga. i think there are four fpga's you can put on a roach2. but with some of the smaller fpga's, there is some loss of functionality (you loose some of the qdr, ddr, etc with smaller chips that have fewer I/O capabilities). best wishes, dan On Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 2:56 AM, Yashwant Gupta <[email protected]>wrote: > > Dear Rick, > > I think MTE will be happy to supply the CX4-SFP+ converter box. We have > been trying to collect the set of requirements from all Casperites, so that > MTE can think of a big, single order (Rakesh Mehta, owner of MTE, is also > cc'ed here). So, if you would like to send in your requirements, we can > add those to the total count. > > With best wishes, > > Yashwant. > > ------------------------------**------------------------ > Yashwant Gupta > National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (TIFR) > Pune University Campus, Pune 411 007 > India. > > Phone : +91-20-25719242 (Pune); > +91-2132-252119/258316 (GMRT) > Fax : +91-20-25692149/25697257 > email : [email protected] > ------------------------------**------------------------ > > > On Fri, 5 Oct 2012, John Ford wrote: > > hi rick, >>> >>> there are no cx4-sfp+ cables, as there's a format conversion >>> (8/10 encoding to 64/66) so you need electronics. >>> >>> you can purchase single cx4-sfp+ adapters, >>> made by ~three different companies, $1Kish. >>> >>> there are less expensive CX4 fiber cables than the one you received a >>> quote >>> on. >>> details on various cable vendors are on the casper web site. >>> but as far as i know, the fiber cables all need power through the >>> connector. >>> we might have some you can try out. perhaps you could open the >>> connector, and solder a wire, and feed 12 volts in. >>> >>> >> MTE India sells the 4 and 8 channel cx-4 to SFP converter box. >> >> Looks like a good solution. >> Search the casper mail archive for: >> >> 8-port CX4 to SFP+ adapter unit : now available >> >> by Yashwant Gupta: >> >> Dear Casperites, >> >> During the CASPER workshop last month, we announced the development of the >> CX4 to SFP+ standalone unit for ROACH-1 board which has been produced >> jointly by Mechatronics Test Equipment (MTE) Ltd., Pune and GMRT >> (NCRA-TIFR). A poster about this was also displayed during the workshop, a >> copy of which is attached alongwith. >> >> We are pleased to announce that this is unit is now fully tested and ready >> for release. >> >> The unit comes with four/eight port CX4 to SFP+ conversion options. It is >> available in a standard 2U rack mountable enclosure. It has two PCBs each >> having a quad PHY chip from Vitesse for CX4 to SFP+ conversion. The unit >> has in-built SMPS and cooling arrangement. It is meant for use with the >> ROACH-1 board and has passed preliminary tests, including test runs in the >> GMRT packetised correlator. >> >> Mechatronics Test Equipments is willing to mass produce these units for >> use by CASPERites. However, they would like to get an estimate of the >> number of units required within the CASPER community, so that appopriate >> pricing can be decided. >> >> We request all those interested in procuring this adapter to send us the >> number of units they would be interested to order, and also some >> indication of the time scale of the requirement. >> >> With best wishes, >> >> Yashwant >> >> >>> best wishes, >>> >>> dan >>> >>> >>> On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 3:07 PM, rick raffanti <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>> Hi Casperions, >>>> >>>> See below from Anton Tremsin at SSL. We are using the ROACH-I and have >>>> no need for the power of ROACH-2. So we're stuck with CX4 cables, and a >>>> CX4 NIC. Are there any other ways to go here? I saw a posting here about >>>> a 4-channel CX4-to-SPF+ box, but that's big and unwieldy and power hungry. >>>> Is it possible to go CX4 to SFP+ in the cable and then buy an SFP+ NIC? Or >>>> something like that? >>>> Thanks, >>>> Rick Raffanti >>>> >>>> >>>> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: 10Gb fiberoptic cable >>>> Date: Thu, >>>> 04 Oct 2012 14:21:10 -0700 From: Anton Tremsin >>>> <[email protected]><ast@**ssl.berkeley.edu <[email protected]>> >>>> To: >>>> Rick Raffanti <[email protected]> <[email protected]> >>>> >>>> Hi Rick, >>>> >>>> I found the company which can sell us the 10Gb fiberoptic cable, exactly >>>> the same as I have now. I went through a long chain of very helpful >>>> people and in the end here it is. >>>> >>>> If anyone at Casper need that one we can share the access to those guys. >>>> They did not ask for the minimum order, but their price is quite a bit >>>> higher than what we had before. Since we do not have choice and do need >>>> those I guess we should buy a couple of them before they become obsolete >>>> in that company. >>>> >>>> Do you think they will keep active the network cards with CX4 (this new >>>> version T420)? Or we will have to deal with the conversion to SFP(?) >>>> fiberoptic on one side and a converter (quite expensive and bulky) on >>>> Roach side? >>>> >>>> Anton >>>> >>> > >
