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Freescale Announces First GPON Chip Leveraging a codevelopment deal with Alcatel, Freescale announced its first standard GPON product, the MSC7120 controller. The chip targets GPON gateways and other client-side applications. The highly integrated device includes an e300 Power CPU for the control plane, a packet engine for the data path, and a Starcore DSP for VoIP processing. The MSC7120 conforms to the G.984 GEM protocol and, per the GPON specifications, supports data rates of 2.5Gbps for downstream traffic. Operating at 266MHz, the e300 CPU can support 8.5Gbps of I/O throughput. The DSP operates at 178MHz and can process four voice channels. Freescale is the first GPON vendor to integrate VoIP processing. For more voice channels, designers may attach Freescale's MSC7111 DSP over the local bus. For the client interface, the MSC7120 integrates two Gigabit Ethernet MACs, which may connect to external PHYs using RGMII. The chip also supports 802.1p for quality of support and CRC for TCP/IP - offloading the local host. Under the terms of its agreement with Alcatel, Freescale has been supplying its GPON chip exclusively to Alcatel for several months. Now, the company is free to sample the device to other customers. We expect this experience will enable Freescale to quickly bring new customers to production. Along with the silicon, Freescale provides evaluation boards and software for real-time operating system and application software for voice processing and signaling. The codevelopment arrangement should ensure that products using the MSC7120 will interoperate with Alcatel's GPON switches. The partners will assist with interoperability testing. Making the chip broadly available will enable third parties to develop compatible gateways, boosting Alcatel's position with carriers. Freescale has the ability to develop future GPON products without any exclusivity to Alcatel, which could result in a broader range of gateway products. With early products compatible with Alcatel switches, Freescale is positioned to become the GPON volume leader. Unlike GPON leader BroadLight, Freescale does not provide an OLT device, which may be a requirement for some OEMs. But the integrated VoIP processing provides differentiation for gateway applications. —Jag Additional coverage of GPON products appears in our report A Guide to Broadband Interface Chips. As ESC last week, AMCC announced two new PowerPC processors: the 460EX at the high end, and the 405EX at the low end. The two new chips are AMCC's first processors to move to 90nm CMOS, improving clock speed and reducing power. Although the processors are general enough to be used in a variety of applications, each has a specific target, namely multifunction printers for the 460EX and enterprise WLAN access points for the 405EX. Both are planned to begin sampling in 3Q07. Despite its name, the 460EX uses the PowerPC 440 CPU, just like several other AMCC processors. By moving the 440 CPU to 90nm, the 460EX can operate at up to 1.2GHz, 50% faster than AMCC's existing 130nm devices. The fast CPU is matched with a 256KB L2 cache and 64KB of additional on-chip SRAM that can be software-mapped for special purposes, such as data buffers. The chip can connect to external ASICs and other devices using PCI Express x4 and x1. The x1 port can also be configured as SATA, for systems with a hard drive. For connectivity, the 460EX provides both dual Gigabit Ethernet and two USB 2.0 ports. AMCC's 405EP has been very successful in enterprise access points, mainly for 802.11b/g. The 405EX uses a new 90nm version of the PowerPC 405 CPU that operates at up to 667MHz, providing enough performance for more demanding 802.11n and WiMax access points. The highly integrated device provides all the key functions for an access point, requiring only external memory, radio, and Ethernet PHY chips. The radio connects via PCI Express for reduced pin count. The 90nm process keeps power dissipation below 2W (typ) for the processor. Pricing for the 405EX starts at $17. Since entering the PowerPC market, AMCC has sold millions of processors into applications such as access points, printers, and set-top boxes. The company has succeeded in these high-volume markets without adopting technology, such as 90nm or multicore, that competitors commonly use. Instead, AMCC focuses on delivering the right combination of CPU performance and peripherals for each application. The new 90nm processors will help the company fend off competition in these markets. —Linley Additional coverage of AMCC's PowerPC chips appears in our report A Guide to High-Speed Embedded Processors. Also at ESC, Intel announced that it is bringing its quad-CPU product, code-named Clovertown, to the embedded market. Following its recent pattern, Intel is introducing the embedded version about three months after the server version. Although the server product is available at speeds up to 2.66GHz and in a "low power" version that dissipates 50W, the company chose to productize only the 2.0GHz and 2.33GHz speed grades, which coincidentally are both rated at 80W (TDP). Officially called the E5335 and E5345 Xeon, the embedded versions differ from the server versions mainly in Intel's commitment to a five-year product lifecycle. The four-leaf Clovertown consists of two die in one package, each die containing dual CPUs based on Intel's 64-bit "Core" microarchitecture. Thus, for software that can take advantage of all four CPUs, it delivers up to twice the performance of earlier dual-CPU Xeon products. The embedded Clovertown products include a total of 8MB of L2 cache and a 1.33GHz front-side bus (FSB) interface. Like other Xeon chips, they do not integrate any system logic or peripherals. Although competitors offer embedded processors with 16 or more CPUs, those products tend to use less powerful CPUs. Using 65nm technology, the Core CPUs achieve about twice the clock speed of the CPUs in Cavium's Octeon or RMI's XLR, for example, which both use 90nm technology. Furthermore, the Core microarchitecture is capable of executing more instructions per cycle (IPC) than these competitors can. For applications that can tolerate 80W or that have a large base of x86 software, Clovertown offers outstanding performance. But for those who can consider MIPS chips, Octeon and XLR offer similar performance and greater integration at less than half the power of the Intel processor. —Linley Additional coverage of Intel's embedded products appears in our report A Guide to High-Speed Embedded Processors. Confirming an earlier announcement by Chinese government officials, Intel announced that it is building a 90nm wafer fab in China. Trailing the 45nm fabs that Intel is now ramping by two generations, the facility will initially manufacture system-logic chip sets that complement Intel's PC processors. It also neatly answers the question of how Intel will sustain the extended product lives of its XScale-based NPUs and RAID processors, which both use the 90nm technology that is being removed from Intel's leading-edge fabs. Complete coverage of Intel's RAID processors appears in our new report A Guide to Storage Processors. Last week, PLX Technology announced two new PCI Express switch products: the PEX8509 and the PEX8505. The former is an eight-lane, eight-port switch and the latter is a five-lane, five-port switch. These devices have low latencies—about 118ns—and boast the industry's lowest power dissipation. With one lane per port, the devices are suited for I/O expansion. Applications for the PEX8509 include notebook-docking stations and networking control plane. The PEX8505 is a good fit for single-board I/O expansion, which is often required in printers. Each device is scheduled to sample later this quarter. The combined switch products from PLX and IDT now meet the requirements of most switching applications that use PCIe. —Jag Additional
coverage of PCI Express switch chips appears in our report
A Guide to High-Speed Interconnects.
Join us on May 9 for a Linley Tech seminar on High-Speed Interconnects. Jag Bolaria, senior analyst with The Linley Group, will kick off the program with an overview of interconnect technologies, standards, and silicon trends. The morning session will feature talks focused on system interconnects, while the afternoon session will concentrate on 10Gbps Ethernet and beyond. The seminar wraps up with a lively closing panel on choosing the right interconnect. 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, Altera, Rambus, Pericom, Teranetics, Solarflare, and Tundra. Click here for seminar information.
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