Ottawa, Canada, November 14, 2008 -- Zarlink Semiconductor Inc. (TSX:ZL) today announced commercial availability of ZLynx dual data rate (DDR) active optical cables with integrated quad small form-factor (QSFP) and hybrid QSFP-to-CX4 terminations. The expanded ZLynx portfolio will be prominent at next week\'s SC\'08 show in Austin, Texas (Zarlink booth#651 and SCinet network).

Zarlink was the first vendor to volume-produce active optical cables, with ZLynx ZL™60615 cables now deployed in a range of data centers and computer clusters. Building on this leadership, ZLynx-Q and ZLynx hybrid cables are currently at select lead customers. The cables support up to 100-meter reach to enable larger and scalable data centers, while their compact size further simplifies installation and maintenance.

\"Zarlink extended the ZLynx product line in response to data center, server and switch demand for an easy-to-use, lighter optical cable solution with enhanced signal-integrity performance,\" said Ram Rao, product line manager for Zarlink Semiconductor\'s parallel interconnect products. \"ZLynx CX4 cables offered superior cable management with lower bit error rate than traditional copper cables. New ZLynx-Q and ZLynx hybrid cables offer the popular QSFP termination at 4x5 Gb/s and they will extend to 4x10 Gb/s for InfiniBand QDR.\"

Zarlink\'s hybrid CX4-to-QSFP cables are used to bridge CX4-based host channel adaptor (HCA) cards and new InfiniBand switches employing QSFP terminations. The QSFP interface is being rapidly adopted for high-performance computing and InfiniBand because of the QSFP\'s faceplate density, its recessed housing eases cable management, and enhanced signal integrity and electromagnetic interference shielding. All of these are critical as speeds migrate to 10 Gb/s.

For further detail, please contact http://www.zarlink.com/zarlink/hs/press_releases_15794.htm or contact Mr. Jacky Su at Seraphim,Taiwan distributor of Zarlink, tel: 26984540 ext. 216 or email to jackysu@seraphim.com.tw 

Vendor:

Zarlink