Xyratex to Present at the SPIE Photonics West 2014 Conference in San Francisco

HAVANT, United Kingdom, Jan. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Xyratex Ltd (Nasdaq: XRTX), a leading provider of data storage technology, today announced that Richard Pitwon, leader of the photonics research and development group at Xyratex, will present at SPIE Photonics West 2014, held in San Francisco from February 1 through 6. Mr. Pitwon will deliver a presentation on Wednesday, February 5 on the paper: "Demonstration of Fully-Enabled Data Centre Subsystem with Embedded Optical Interconnect" at the OPTO 2014 conference, a part of SPIE Photonics West 2014 event. The paper describes some of Xyratex's recent achievements in deploying embedded optical interconnect into data storage systems as an enabler for future Exascale data centre architectures. In addition, Mr. Pitwon will chair a conference session on "Manufacturing Technologies."

Xyratex further extends its participation at the conference with its involvement in System Embedded Photonics in Access Networks ("SEPIANet"), an EU funded collaborative research and development project coordinated by Xyratex, to develop technology solutions for embedded optical architectures in access network head-end systems allowing for a significant reduction in power consumption and increase in energy efficiency, system density and bandwidth scalability. The SEPIANet consortium comprises the organisations Xyratex, Fraunhofer IZM, ILFA Feinstleitertechnik, TerOpta, V-I Systems and Conjunct. The project has culminated in the first ever successful demonstration of system embedded planar glass waveguide based optical backplane and pluggable optical interconnect technologies. Fraunhofer IZM hosts a demonstration of this joint accomplishment in its booth #4601-28 at the conference.

SPIE Photonics West has become the largest and premier event for the laser and photonics community in North America encompassing two exhibitions, 1,240 exhibiting companies and a wide range of developed and contributed research papers. The OPTO 2014 conference addresses the latest developments in optoelectronic technologies including silicon photonics, photonic crystals, optoelectronics, semiconductor lasers, quantum dots, and nanophotonics as well as the integration of the technologies in multiple commercial applications.

Presenter: Richard Pitwon, lead photonics technologist at Xyratex
When: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014, 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time
Where:  The Moscone Center, San Francisco, California, USA (Optical Interconnects XIV conference 8991, Session 8)

About Xyratex
Xyratex is a leading provider of data storage technology, including modular solutions for the enterprise data storage industry and hard disk drive (HDD) capital equipment for the HDD industry. Xyratex enterprise data storage platforms provide a range of advanced, scalable data storage solutions for the Original Equipment Manufacturer and High Performance Computing communities. As the largest capital equipment supplier to the HDD industry, Xyratex enables disk drive manufacturers and their component suppliers to meet today's technology and productivity requirements. Xyratex has over 25 years of experience in research and development relating to disk drives, storage systems and manufacturing process technology.

Founded in 1994 in an MBO from IBM, and with headquarters in the UK, Xyratex has an established global base with R&D and operational facilities in North America, Asia and Europe.

SOURCE Xyratex Ltd