Programmable SFP+ Transcievers

Mon Jan 25 10:36:24 UTC 2016

On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 11:55 PM, Colton Conor <colton.conor at gmail.com> wrote:
> Freddy,
>
> So are you saying if you order enough from Fiberstore.com they will give you
> a programmer? That seems like the best solution.

Yes, the magic number seems to be 30000 USD for fiberstore.

I looked into this compatibility magic some time ago.
It's all based on a simple I²C EEPROM. Which is read and values like
vendor/product ID is compared to check compatibility.
Some vendors apparently spend some extra effort making their optics
incompatible. E.g. HP/3COM protect their 10G SFP+ modules with
proprietary validation algorithms which require a micro controller to
emulate it (a basic EEPROM is not enough).

To prevent EEPROM modifications it's possible to set a password/code
sequence for write access. Apparently that's what e.g. flexOptix/solid
optics are doing to implement their own kind of vendor lock-in. Their
programmer only can program their own optics and their optics can be
only programmed by their programmer.

If you buy optics from china they are either not password protected at
all or they will provide you with the password if you ask for it so
you can use any generic programmer.

If you prefer super cheap optics over easy re-programming usability
have a look at the following generic EEPROM programmers (I've no
experience with any of these):
http://sfptotal.com/
https://dimiks.com/en/programmers
http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/tinout2018/product-detailUvTmnWbPvLVh/China-Compatible-Coding-Editor-Programmer-Test-Board-for-GBIC-SFP-SFP-Optical-Transceivers.html
http://www.optics-home.com/pro_details.asp?id=105
http://www.reveltronics.com/en/shop/52/12/chip-programmers/accessories-and-adapters/sfp-module-optical-transceiver-adapter-detail

Or if you prefer the do-it-yourself approach using a Raspberry Pi:
http://eoinpk.blogspot.com/2014/05/raspberry-pi-and-programming-eeproms-on.html

If someone has time to start a nice open source/community supported
generic programmer tool+database which provides the same usability as
e.g. FlexOptix we most likely would support it.