A Guide to Backplane Switch Chips, Fifth Edition

Table of Contents

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Preface xvii Executive Summary  xix   Chapter 1.  Backplane Switching Applications 1      Metro Equipment 3           Edge Routers and Multiservice Switches 3           Metro-Ethernet Switches 4           Multiservice Provisioning Platforms 4      Access Equipment 5           DSL Access Multiplexers (DSLAM) 5           Cable Infrastructure Equipment 5           Cellular Infrastructure 6      Enterprise Equipment 6           Workgroup Switches 7           Modular Switches 8      Data-Center Equipment 8           SAN and NAS 9           Blade Servers 9           Security Appliances 10 Chapter 2.   Equipment Design 11      Router Architecture 11      Blade-Server Architecture 13      Backplane Switching Requirements 15      Quality of Service (QoS) 16      ATCA 19      Advanced Switching Interconnect (ASI) 21      RapidIO 23      Backplane Switched Ethernet 29      System Interfaces 30           Utopia, POS-PHY, and SPI 30           CSIX-L1 and NPF Streaming Interface 30           XAUI and XGMII 31      Backplane Characteristics 32      Design Tradeoffs  33 Chapter 3.   Backplane Switching Technology 35      Types of Backplane Switches 35      Switch-Fabric Architecture 36      Measuring Performance 44 Chapter 4.   Trends and Market Outlook 47      Technology Trends 47      Target Markets 52      Market Size and Outlook 54 Chapter 5.   AMCC 57      Company Background 57      Key Features and Performance 58           PRS Line 58      Internal Architecture 60           PRS-80G 60      System Design 62           PRS 62      Roadmap 65      Conclusions 66 Chapter 6.   Broadcom 67      Company Background 67      Key Features and Performance 68           HiBeam 68           BCM56800 69      Internal Architecture (HiBeam) 71      System Design (HiBeam) 73      Conclusions 75 Chapter 7.   Dune 77      Company Background 77      Key Features and Performance 77      Internal Architecture 78      System Design 80      Conclusions 81 Chapter 8.   Fujitsu 83      Company Background 83      Key Features and Performance 84      Conclusions 87 Chapter 9.   Fulcrum 89      Company Background 89      Key Features and Performance 90      Internal Architecture 91      System Design 93      Conclusions 95 Chapter 10.   PMC-Sierra 97      Company Background 97      Key Features and Performance 97      Internal Architecture 98      System Design 100      Conclusions 101 Chapter 11.   Tundra 103      Company Background 103      Key Features and Performance 104      Design Details 105      Conclusions 107 Chapter 12.   Other Switch Vendors 109      Enigma 111           Company Background 111           Key Features 111           Conclusions 113      Erlang 114           Company Background 114           Key Features and Performance 115           Internal Architecture 116           System Design 117           Conclusions 118      IDT 118           Conclusions 120      Marvell 120      Mercury Computer 121           Company Background 121           Products 122           Conclusions 124      NextIO 124      StarGen 125      TeraChip 126           Company Background 126           Key Features and Performance 126           Conclusions 128      Vitesse 128           Company Background 128           Key Features and Performance 129           Conclusions 130      Xyratex 130 Chapter 13.   Comparing Backplane Switches 133      Interconnect Technologies and Applications 134      Proprietary Switch Fabrics 136           System Configurations 138           Key Differentiators 140      Standard Fabrics 141           Backplane Ethernet Switch Chips 141           RapidIO Switch Chips 143 Chapter 13.   Conclusions 145      Market Overview 145      Proprietary Fabrics 147           Dune Networks 147           Broadcom 148           AMCC 148           Rest of the Vendors 148      Standard Fabrics 149           RapidIO 149           Ethernet 150           Other Standards 151      Closing Thoughts 151 Appendix: Further Reading 153 Index 155     List of Figures   List of Tables

 

 

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