SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Once a year I catch up with a community of high-speed interface engineers at DesignCon. Here's what I learned this time at the annual show.

• Everyone believes we will get to 56 Gbit/second boards, but no one knows how or at what cost
• The growing complexity of high-speed board design is forcing everyone to the table
• Silicon photonics based on wavelength-division multiplexing holds great promise, but will not be widely used in 2015
• Optical backplanes will be big, maybe at DesignCon 2025
• Startup Credo Semiconductor is punching ahead of its weight in the fight to 56G
• The new generation of engineers coming up are wonderful
• And the old farts still have a lively sense of humor

So here’s my trip report from DesignCon 2015, sprinkled with a few random faces, sights and Powerpoint slides from the show floor and conference rooms. Come take a look.