Acacia Communication’s Pico DSP and AC1200 Builds Industry Momentum with OFC Customer Demonstrations, Field Trials and Industry Recognition

AC1200 Offers Flexibility and Industry Leading Performance in Multi-Haul Applications


MAYNARD, Mass., March 04, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acacia Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACIA), a leading provider of high-speed coherent optical interconnect products, today announced that several key customers will be highlighting Acacia’s AC1200 coherent module in their products at this week’s Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC) in San Diego, Calif.  Recently, the AC1200 was demonstrated by ADVA and Cisco for 600G edge DCI and submarine data transport, and was also used in the first 400G transmission across the 6,600km Trans-Atlantic Marea Cable, achieving spectral efficiency of 6.41 b/s/Hz.  In addition, Acacia’s AC1200 coherent module, based on its Pico DSP ASIC, has been recognized by Lightwave Magazine for receiving Lightwave’s highest score of 5.0 in its Innovation Reviews Program.

“We are pleased with the industry momentum that is building around our AC1200 module, which we believe validates its performance, flexibility and low power consumption,” said Benny Mikkelsen, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Acacia Communications. “Our customers’ demonstrations and field trials highlight the AC1200’s value as a flexible multi-haul solution, which we believe enables network operators to reduce their total cost of ownership and improve network utilization.”

“Recent announced field trials of equipment based on Acacia’s AC1200 demonstrated the system’s competitive capabilities in a range of multi-haul applications,” said Scott Wilkinson, Lead Analyst, Optical Hardware of Cignal AI. “We believe that compact modular systems, including several based on the AC1200, are likely to see adoption in the market for both disaggregated and traditional networks. We look forward to seeing more of these systems live at OFC.”

Below are customer descriptions of their products and demonstrations that they plan to highlight at this week’s OFC:

  • ADVA - While many in the industry focus only on capacity, ADVA’s FSP 3000 TeraFlex™ demonstration is going further to reveal its full capabilities to enable SDN-controlled 600G transport. This provides the DCI industry with a clear roadmap for how they can automate their networks and deliver even greater cost, space, power and spectral efficiency in the most open and disaggregated way possible.
  • Cisco Systems - The NCS 1004 will demonstrate 600G wavelengths as well as multi-haul transmission when paired with the NCS 2000.  The multi-haul capability will show 400G over 1500km, 500G over 500km, and 600G over 110km – with the EPNM management system. The NCS 1004 has been operationally optimized for data center applications, and enables simplicity with auto-provisioning, model-driven programmability, and streaming telemetry with real-time monitoring.
  • ECI - Will introduce its optical networking ‘As You Like It’ approach, which enables various levels of disaggregation. With ECI’s Apollo family line, customers can ’mix-n-match’ transponders, muxponders, ROADMs and amplifiers and more on a common chassis. The 1.2TB Dual-Channel Blade that ECI announced a month ago plays a part in this open and modular approach and is based on Acacia’s AC1200 module. Lightwave Innovation Reviews has honored ECI’s Apollo as a High-Score Recipient for its 1.2TB Dual-Channel Blade in the Optical Subsystems category.

Powered by its Pico DSP, Acacia’s AC1200 coherent module supports transmission speeds of up to 1.2 Tbps in a footprint that is 40% less than the size of 5” x 7” modules supporting transmission speeds of 400 Gbps today.  Acacia’s AC1200 coherent module supports a combination of high baud rate, flexible modulation formats and enhanced performance features that enable improvements in capacity and reach. These features make the AC1200 an attractive solution for cloud/DCI, metro, long-haul and submarine applications.   Acacia’s AC1200 module also supports a suite of advanced three-dimensional (3D) shaping features that may be optimized to enable performance approaching theoretical limits on a wide range of network configurations.  3D shaping allows fine-tune adjustment of the modulation characteristics to provide network operators with the flexibility to customize the AC1200 transmission to their network requirements.

About Acacia Communications
Acacia Communications develops, manufactures and sells high-speed coherent optical interconnect products that are designed to transform communications networks through improvements in performance, capacity and cost. By implementing optical interconnect technology in a silicon-based platform, a process Acacia Communications refers to as the “siliconization of optical interconnect,” Acacia Communications is able to offer products at higher speeds and density with lower power consumption, that meet the needs of cloud and service providers and can be easily integrated in a cost-effective manner with existing network equipment. For more information about Acacia, visit www.acacia-inc.com or follow on Twitter at @AcaciaComms.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes statements concerning Acacia Communications and its future expectations, plans and prospects that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For this purpose, any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words "may," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "could," "intends," "target," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential" or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Acacia Communications has based these forward-looking statements largely on its current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that the Company believes may affect its business, financial condition and results of operations. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions including, without limitation, the Company’s expectations around industry momentum related to, and market adoption of, the Company’s AC1200 coherent module, the Company’s belief that customer field trials and demonstrations highlight the AC1200’s value as a flexible multi-haul solution, statements regarding the products and demonstrations being highlighted by the Company’s customers at OFC, and other risks set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 filed with the SEC and in other filings that the Company may make with the SEC in the future. Acacia Communications assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information:

Public Relations Contact:
Kelly Karr
Acacia Communications
Office: (408) 718-9350
Email: PR@acacia-inc.com

Acacia Investor Relations Contact:
Monica Gould
Office: (212) 871-3927
Email: IR@acacia-inc.com

Lindsay Savarese
Office: (212) 331-8417
Email: IR@acacia-inc.com

The Acacia name and logo and the Acacia logo are registered trademarks of Acacia Communications, Inc. in the U.S.A. and other countries.  All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies.