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A Guide to Backplane Switch Chips is now available for immediate delivery. Get up to speed on the latest developments in this dynamic market. For more information, visit our web site. Fujitsu Upgrades 10GbE Switch Chip Earlier this month, Fujitsu announced a new 10G Ethernet switch chip that dramatically increases integration over the company's first-generation design. The MB8AAQ3020 is a 20x10GbE managed Layer 2 switch on a chip, which is intended for both pizza-box switch designs and backplane applications in modular Ethernet switches, blade servers, and other embedded designs. Like Fujitsu's 12x10GbE switch chips, the new 3020 uses a shared-memory architecture and integrates all packet and table memories. Fujitsu used its 90nm process technology to increase the integration and feature set of its second-generation design while keeping total chip power from increasing. The 3020 is the industry's first 10GbE switch chip to integrate 10Gbps serdes for direct connection to XFP optical modules; the chip also supports XAUI or CX4 on all 10GbE ports. Another industry first is Fujitsu's support for Priority Pause and Backward Congestion Notification, although these are pre-standard implementations of the draft-802.3ar specification. The chip also integrates a pair of GbE ports, which are primarily intended for switch management. Although it has a larger ball count, the 3020 fits in the same size (35mm) BGA as that used by Fujitsu's 12-port 10GbE switch chips. The 3020 is currently sampling; pricing was not announced. After having the 10GbE switch market to itself for more than two years, Fujitsu now faces direct competition from Broadcom and startup Fulcrum Microsystems. Fujitsu's timely sampling of the 3020 keeps it among the leaders in terms of port count and power dissipation. For switch designs with optical ports, the 3020 offers huge system cost savings through the elimination of external 10Gbps serdes components. Although CX4 switch designs are the most cost sensitive, most customers will want optical and CX4 designs based on a common switch chip. As 10GbE competition heats up, Fujitsu has wisely found ways to differentiate its new chip. —Bob Additional coverage of Fujitsu's new 10GbE switch chip appears in our new reports A Guide to Gigabit and 10G Ethernet Chips and A Guide to Backplane Switch Chips. This week, Luxtera announced that it is sampling prototype devices that demonstrate its innovative optoelectronic technology. The single-chip prototype implements dual XFP transceivers that can be connected directly to an optical fiber. Consequently, this design eliminates external components such as the TIA (trans-impedance amplifier) and LA (limiting amplifier) that are needed in traditional optical modules. Eliminating these components should reduce the size, power, and cost of the optics for 10Gbps interfaces. Luxtera expects its technology to drive the PHY costs of optical ports from the current $300 to less than $100. Luxtera has developed its dual-XFP transceiver on standard 130nm CMOS technology and is sampling the device in a 20x12mm ceramic package. Lasers bonded to the CMOS chip inject light at a wavelength of 1550nm, which travels transparently through silicon. Luxtera has developed ring modulators to modulate this light on the silicon. The prototype includes photodetectors mounted on the chip, but the company plans to eventually integrate the photodetectors using SiGe channels on its silicon. This chip also integrates the TIA, output driver, and clock and data recovery (CDR) circuits. Luxtera expects its devices to drive up to 2,000 meters and dissipate about 1.5W per channel. In 1H07, Luxtera plans to launch a commercial transceiver product using this technology. The initial product may be a dual-port or a quad-port optoelectronic transceiver. Initial markets for this product include communications, storage, and high-performance computing. These devices may be used in 10Gbps NICs and 10Gbps switches. Luxtera also plans to offer a product for consumer applications such as HDTV interconnects. Luxtera's disruptive technology has the potential to provide greater throughput, lower cost, better integration, and lower power dissipation than any competing technology. With government contracts to fund its current technology, the company is generating revenue that should keep it an ongoing concern. Alternative approaches such as 10GBase-LRM and 10GBase-T, however, have greater industry backing. Although Luxtera's solution is technically superior, the company must prove that it can deliver a commercially viable product. —Jag Last week, StarGen was forced to shelve its ASI products. A major contributor to the ASI specification, the company was attempting to raise new funds to expand its ASI product line. Investors, however, lost confidence in the company's ability to reach profitability as well as in the adoption rate of ASI. As a result, StarGen was unable to secure new funding and was forced to release most of its employees, leaving the company with a few engineers and the founders. Although the company will continue to sell its existing StarFabric products, it has pulled its ASI products. A larger semiconductor vendor such as PLX Technology may pick up StarGen's product line and employees. —Jag
On September 21, The Linley Group presents a Linley Tech seminar on Embedded Network Security Design. Bob Wheeler, senior analyst and author of the report, A Guide to Security and Content Processors, will kick off the program with an overview of security technologies and where they are being deployed in the network. The morning session will feature talks focused on embedding security in next-gen networking equipment, while the afternoon session will concentrate on addressing content-security performance. The seminar wraps up with a closing panel on the future directions of network-security processing. Following the seminar will be a networking reception complete with exhibits. You won't want to miss this outstanding lineup of technical presenters, including:
Visit our web site to view the complete program, seminar details, and registration information. The seminar is free to qualified individuals who register early. This event is sponsored by Freescale, AMCC, SafeNet, Cavium, Hifn, Sensory, Tarari, and The Linley Group.
The demand for high-speed processors continues to grow as market opportunities abound for these speedy chips. These devices are ideal for handling the complex functions required by networking applications, automotive, consumer devices, industrial control, medical imaging, and much more. These applications share a need for speed but also the flexibility that a general-purpose processor provides. These chips use standard instruction sets such as MIPS, PowerPC, and x86, allowing programmers to use a wide variety of operating systems and development tools. This completely revised report provides extensive coverage of high-end embedded processors from a mix of old and new vendors, featuring AMCC, Broadcom, Cavium, Freescale, IBM, Intel, PMC-Sierra, and Raza Microelectronics. Other vendors covered include AMD, PA Semi, SafeNet, Toshiba, and Via Technologies. This edition covers all the recent announcements, such as the dual-core PowerQuicc 8572, the PWRficient chip from PA Semi, Intel’s Core microarchitecture, and Raza’s acquisition of Alchemy. It also provides market share and market size data for the embedded segments covered. Learn how multicore and multithreading technologies are impacting the embedded world. Find out which target markets and applications bear watching. The Linley Group provides the technology analysis you need to make informed business decisions. Order A Guide to High-Speed Embedded Processors by September 22 to take advantage of the prepublication discount. For more information on this report, visit our web site. To receive The Linley Wire via e-mail, click here
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