Editor: Linley
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Communications Silicon Market Share 2007 is available for immediate delivery. Get all-new market share data and find out who were the surprising winners and losers. For more information, visit our web site. Apple confirmed yesterday that it will acquire embedded-processor vendor P.A. Semiconductor. The surprising deal carries a price tag of $278 million, according to Forbes.com. The startup, led by CPU veteran Dan Dobberpuhl, had developed a 2GHz dual-CPU PowerPC processor. The PWRficient 1682M had recently entered production, gaining design wins in military/aerospace, high-end networking, and similar equipment. Apple, however, has no plans to sell the PWRficient chip; instead, we believe the experienced design team will be redirected onto a low-power processor for iPhones and other mobile devices. Plans to support existing customers, which include NEC, Cisco, and various U.S. defense agencies, are currently being negotiated. In any case, taking the P.A. Semi processor off the market removes a thorn from the side of PowerPC leaders Freescale and AMCC, which have so far been unable to match the performance of the 1682M. Designing microprocessors is an expensive game these days; we believe P.A. Semi spent about $80 million on its initial chip. Mask sets alone cost several million dollars at 65nm and below, forcing companies to do extensive presilicon verification. More important, designing a leading-edge processor requires not just CPU expertise but integration of high-speed interconnect and special-purpose functions such as security, networking, and video. After making this massive investment, it may take years for a startup to gain the confidence of major customers who are willing to buy in large quantities. We do not foresee venture-capital firms being willing to invest nine-digit sums in future processor startups, particularly given their risky track record. Consider the recent failure of Montalvo, which was designing a four-core x86 processor. Despite raising $73 million, the 300-person company ran out of cash and could not raise the estimated $100 million it needed to complete its design and bring it to production. The Apple deal will double the $126 million invested in P.A. Semi, a positive return but modest by VC standards. With the possible exception of RMI (which predates Dobberpuhl's company), we expect P.A. Semi will be the last processor startup to generate a positive exit after such sizable funding. Montalvo will probably be the last processor startup to even raise that kind of money. Microprocessors have become a big-boy game; newcomers need not apply. —Linley Additional coverage of P.A. Semi appears in our report A Guide to High-Speed Embedded Processors.
Earlier this month, startups Solarflare and Aquantia announced the newest generation of 10G Ethernet-over-copper PHYs. These products are the first single-die devices to implement the 10GBase-T standard. Compared with earlier products, these devices reduce both power dissipation and package size. Each is housed in a 21mm BGA and dissipates less than 6W. Solarflare expects to sample its SFT9001 PHY in May. Aquantia announced two products, the AQ1001 and the AQ1002, and is currently sampling the former. Typical power dissipation for the SFT9001 is 270mW in idle mode and 5.9W when active; the AQ1001 operates at 5.5W. The SFT9001 supports multirate Ethernet, allowing it to negotiate data rate of 100Mbps, 1Gbps, or 10Gbps, and therefore is backward compatible with existing infrastructure. Although the AQ1001 operates at 10Gbps only, the AQ1002, due to sample in 3Q08, supports all three rates. These new 10GBase-T PHYs are a big step forward from existing solutions. Their low power and small size reduces the system cost of dual port NICs, Gigabit Ethernet switches with 10GbE uplink ports, and high-density 10GbE switches. Additionally, these devices can increase the density of current 10G Ethernet line cards and switches. In turn, these cost reductions and new applications should fuel growth of 10G Ethernet port shipments. —Jag Additional coverage of Solarflare and Aquantia appears in our report A Guide to Ethernet Switch and PHY Chips.
On Monday, Fujitsu announced a new 10G Ethernet switch chip, the MB86C69RBC. Compared with its predecessor, the MB86C69 adds more ports, integrates PHYs, and adds Layer 3 (L3) functions. The new chip is the highest density 10GbE switch announced. At 22W, the MB86C69 also has the lowest power dissipation per port. Fujitsu plans to ship samples in June. The MB86C69 provides 26 ports of 10G Ethernet, each with integrated 10Gbps PHYs, and two management ports of Gigabit Ethernet. Any of the 10G ports can be assigned to the system interface (backplane) or the line interface. For the system interface, the PHYs support 10GBase-KR and can fall back to XAUI, 2.5Gbps, or 1Gbps data rates. For the line interface, the PHYs connect directly to XFP and SFP+ optical modules. The chip integrates Ethernet flow-control features that are still being defined by IEEE work groups. These prestandard features include backward congestion notification (BCN), congestion management, per priority pause, and transmission selection. The device also adds L3 features such as ACL enforcement and forwarding. By integrating PHYs on the system and line interfaces, the MB86C69 reduces system cost and offers best-in-class power dissipation and latency. The new L3 features make the device more competitive against products from Broadcom and for aggregation. Enhanced Ethernet flow control enables system designers to use the MB86C69 in applications that need to allocate a guaranteed share of bandwidth; these applications include converged Ethernet applications in the data center and storage networks. Overall, Fujitsu's new10GbE switch plugs competitive holes and enables the company to add more design wins. —Jag Additional coverage of Fujitsu's Ethernet products appears in our report A Guide to Ethernet Switch and PHY Chips. After acquiring the telecom portion of Intel's optical module business earlier this year, Emcore this week acquired the enterprise portion. Because of an overlap with its product lines, Emcore had initially declined to pick up Intel's X2, XFP, and SFP+ modules. Finding no other suitors, however, Intel came back with a sweet deal that Emcore could not refuse: a $25 million price tag for a business expected to generate $45 million in revenue over the next 12 months. This move essentially completes Intel's fire-sale exit from the communications business, allowing it to focus entirely on its x86 processors. —Jag
If you are using or evaluating interconnect technologies for your designs, then you won't want to miss our next Linley Tech seminar. Join us on May 14 in San Jose when we bring together industry leaders to discuss the latest products and technologies for system-level interconnects and recent developments at the physical layer for Ethernet at 10Gbps and beyond. This one-day event delivers a wealth of information including interconnect technologies, developing standards, and technology trends. We have an outstanding lineup of presenters, including:
The seminar is free to qualified attendees and is intended for OEMs, board developers, software developers, press, and the financial community. This event is sponsored by Freescale, AMCC, Tundra, Pericom, Xilinx, Teranetics, ClariPhy, HyperTransport Consortium, Mountain View Alliance, and Ethernet Alliance. Click here for more information.
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