I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that AI has been steadily changing the world, but did you know that optics is a key part of its hardware infrastructure? To explain it, fortunately we have a seasoned product manager who knows both the switching side and the optics side. Lucky for us, he sits next to me at the office and agreed to chat about it.

In Episode 59, we begin a new conversation with Paymon Mogharabi, Senior Product Manager at Cisco’s Optics team, also known as the Transceiver Modules Group. We begin with his start in Cisco and the history of data center hardware architectures.

Paymon Mogharabi is a networking industry and Cisco veteran of nearly three decades with Electrical Engineering degrees from UC Irvine and USC. After starting at Cisco as a Technical Assistance Center engineer, he became a Technical marketing Engineer for Cisco's Catalyst switches. He then took product management positions for Cisco's Edge Services Router, Nexus data center switches, and UCS server products. He is now a Senior Product Manager in Cisco's Transceiver Modules Group and has sat next to me for the past 7 years, focusing on data center applications.

Related links
Cisco Optics-to-Device Compatibility Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/ 
Cisco Optics-to-Optics Interoperability Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/iop 
Cisco Optics Product Information: https://copi.cisco.com/ 

Additional resources
Cisco Optics Podcast: https://optics.podcastpage.io/ 
Blog: https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/ciscoopticsblog 
Cisco Optics YouTube playlist: http://cs.co/9008BlQen 
Cisco Optics landing page: cisco.com/go/optics 

Music credits
Sunny Morning by FSM Team | https://www.free-stock-music.com/artist.fsm-team.html
Upbeat by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.com


Cisco Optics Podcast Ep 59. Why some optics are good for AI and some aren’t (1/5)

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that AI has been steadily changing the world, but did you know that optics is a key part of its hardware infrastructure? To explain it, fortunately we have a seasoned product manager who knows both the switching side and the optics side. Lucky for us, he sits next to me at the office and agreed to chat about it.

In Episode 60, we continue our conversation with Paymon Mogharabi, Senior Product Manager at Cisco’s Optics team, also known as the Transceiver Modules Group. We get into data center hardware architectures and traffic patterns for AI applications.

Paymon Mogharabi is a networking industry and Cisco veteran of nearly three decades with Electrical Engineering degrees from UC Irvine and USC. After starting at Cisco as a Technical Assistance Center engineer, he became a Technical marketing Engineer for Cisco's Catalyst switches. He then took product management positions for Cisco's Edge Services Router, Nexus data center switches, and UCS server products. He is now a Senior Product Manager in Cisco's Transceiver Modules Group and has sat next to me for the past 7 years, focusing on data center applications.


Related links
Cisco Optics-to-Device Compatibility Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/ 
Cisco Optics-to-Optics Interoperability Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/iop 
Cisco Optics Product Information: https://copi.cisco.com/ 

Additional resources
Cisco Optics Podcast: https://optics.podcastpage.io/ 
Blog: https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/ciscoopticsblog 
Cisco Optics YouTube playlist: http://cs.co/9008BlQen 
Cisco Optics landing page: cisco.com/go/optics 

Music credits
Sunny Morning by FSM Team | https://www.free-stock-music.com/artist.fsm-team.html
Upbeat by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.com


Cisco Optics Podcast Ep 60. Why some optics are good for AI and some aren’t (2/5)

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that AI has been steadily changing the world, but did you know that optics is a key part of its hardware infrastructure? To explain it, fortunately we have a seasoned product manager who knows both the switching side and the optics side. Lucky for us, he sits next to me at the office and agreed to chat about it.

In Episode 61, we continue our conversation with Paymon Mogharabi, Senior Product Manager at Cisco’s Optics team, also known as the Transceiver Modules Group. We go into more detail about AI datacenter hardware architectures and Ethernet.

Paymon Mogharabi is a networking industry and Cisco veteran of nearly three decades with Electrical Engineering degrees from UC Irvine and USC. After starting at Cisco as a Technical Assistance Center engineer, he became a Technical marketing Engineer for Cisco's Catalyst switches. He then took product management positions for Cisco's Edge Services Router, Nexus data center switches, and UCS server products. He is now a Senior Product Manager in Cisco's Transceiver Modules Group and has sat next to me for the past 7 years, focusing on data center applications.


Related links
Cisco Optics-to-Device Compatibility Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/ 
Cisco Optics-to-Optics Interoperability Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/iop 
Cisco Optics Product Information: https://copi.cisco.com/ 

Additional resources
Cisco Optics Podcast: https://optics.podcastpage.io/ 
Blog: https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/ciscoopticsblog 
Cisco Optics YouTube playlist: http://cs.co/9008BlQen 
Cisco Optics landing page: cisco.com/go/optics 

Music credits
Sunny Morning by FSM Team | https://www.free-stock-music.com/artist.fsm-team.html
Upbeat by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.com


Cisco Optics Podcast Ep 61. Why some optics are good for AI and some aren’t (3/5)

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that AI has been steadily changing the world, but did you know that optics is a key part of its hardware infrastructure? To explain it, fortunately we have a seasoned product manager who knows both the switching side and the optics side. Lucky for us, he sits next to me at the office and agreed to chat about it.

In Episode 62, we continue our conversation with Paymon Mogharabi, Senior Product Manager at Cisco’s Optics team, also known as the Transceiver Modules Group. We get into smart NICs and future growth affecting optics.

Paymon Mogharabi is a networking industry and Cisco veteran of nearly three decades with Electrical Engineering degrees from UC Irvine and USC. After starting at Cisco as a Technical Assistance Center engineer, he became a Technical marketing Engineer for Cisco's Catalyst switches. He then took product management positions for Cisco's Edge Services Router, Nexus data center switches, and UCS server products. He is now a Senior Product Manager in Cisco's Transceiver Modules Group and has sat next to me for the past 7 years, focusing on data center applications.

Related links
Cisco Optics-to-Device Compatibility Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/ 
Cisco Optics-to-Optics Interoperability Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/iop 
Cisco Optics Product Information: https://copi.cisco.com/ 

Additional resources
Cisco Optics Podcast: https://optics.podcastpage.io/ 
Blog: https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/ciscoopticsblog 
Cisco Optics YouTube playlist: http://cs.co/9008BlQen 
Cisco Optics landing page: cisco.com/go/optics 

Music credits
Sunny Morning by FSM Team | https://www.free-stock-music.com/artist.fsm-team.html
Upbeat by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.com


Cisco Optics Podcast Ep 62. Why some optics are good for AI and some aren’t (4/5)

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that AI has been steadily changing the world, but did you know that optics is a key part of its hardware infrastructure? To explain it, fortunately we have a seasoned product manager who knows both the switching side and the optics side. Lucky for us, he sits next to me at the office and agreed to chat about it.

In Episode 63, we conclude our conversation with Paymon Mogharabi, Senior Product Manager at Cisco’s Optics team, also known as the Transceiver Modules Group. We continue with the constraints to consider when designing AI cluster racks and optics choices for them.

Paymon Mogharabi is a networking industry and Cisco veteran of nearly three decades with Electrical Engineering degrees from UC Irvine and USC. After starting at Cisco as a Technical Assistance Center engineer, he became a Technical marketing Engineer for Cisco's Catalyst switches. He then took product management positions for Cisco's Edge Services Router, Nexus data center switches, and UCS server products. He is now a Senior Product Manager in Cisco's Transceiver Modules Group and has sat next to me for the past 7 years, focusing on data center applications.

Related links
Cisco Optics-to-Device Compatibility Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/ 
Cisco Optics-to-Optics Interoperability Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/iop 
Cisco Optics Product Information: https://copi.cisco.com/ 

Additional resources
Cisco Optics Podcast: https://optics.podcastpage.io/ 
Blog: https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/ciscoopticsblog 
Cisco Optics YouTube playlist: http://cs.co/9008BlQen 
Cisco Optics landing page: cisco.com/go/optics 

Music credits
Sunny Morning by FSM Team | https://www.free-stock-music.com/artist.fsm-team.html
Upbeat by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.com


Cisco Optics Podcast Ep 63. Why some optics are good for AI and some aren’t (5/5)

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