Timbercon Releases the SFP+ Electrical Loopback
Timbercon, Inc. announced they have finalized the SFP+ Electrical Loopback that has been in the prototype testing phase for the past three (3) months. Timbercon has completed all design and engineering phases of the SFP+ Electrical Loopback and has started the manufacturing of production quantities for sale to all SFP+ users and designers.
The Timbercon EL-11-07001 SFP+ Electrical Loopback is used for testing SFP+ transceiver ports in host/system boards. By substituting for a full-featured SFP+ transceiver with an optical Armadillo Loopback the SFP+ Electrical Loopback provides a cost effective method for port testing. In addition to the Electrical Loopback function, the EL-11-07001 provides a MSA standard 2-wire serial communication interface to digital diagnostics, a pre-loaded EEPROM memory map (standard and customized), and an enhanced housing for excellent heat dissipation.
One significant feature of the SFP+ Electrical Loopback is that it contains two LED indicators that display the operating status of the device. The green LED illuminates when the Loopback is seated and blinks when the temperature is beyond the allowable range. The red LED illuminates for a power down status and blinks when the Loopback shuts down due to extreme temperature.
“The SFP+ Electrical Loopback adds another weapon to the Test Engineers’ arsenal in both manufacturing and development environments. The addition of the SFP+ to our XFP, SFP and HSSDC2 Electrical Loopbacks has continued our commitment to economical board testing as well as full system testing with our Armadillo Optical Loopbacks”, said John Lee, Vice President.
In addition to the release of the SFP+ Electrical Loopback, Timbercon is also beginning productization of a SFP+ Host Test Board that was developed to provide a testing and programming platform for both the SFP+ and SFP Electrical Loopbacks. The SFP+ Host Test Board will comply with the SFP+ MSA standards and will come complete with operation software and a user manual to enable SFP+ and SFP Loopback and transceiver programming and testing.