Broadcom Announces Industry's Lowest Power, Highest Performance 100GbE Multi-Rate Gearbox PHYs

Press release:

Broadcom Announces Industry's Lowest Power, Highest Performance 100GbE Multi-Rate Gearbox PHYs

Industry's First to Support 10GbE, 40GbE and 100GbE Line Interfaces for Next-Generation Data Center, Enterprise and Core Networks

IRVINE, Calif., May 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

News Highlights:

• 40 nanometer (nm) CMOS PHY reduces power consumption by more than 35 percent(1)
• Exceeds performance of IEEE 802.3ba standard for 100GbE and ITU OTL 4.4 signaling
• Delivers 4-lane and 10-lane bi-directional transmission — increases flexibility for network managers

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today announced the industry's lowest power and highest performance multi-rate 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) physical layer transceivers (PHYs) for next-generation data center, enterprise and core networks. The newBroadcom® BCM84790 and BCM84793 gearbox PHYs extend Broadcom's industry-leading portfolio of 10GbE, 40GbE and now 100GbE physical layer devices while offering the first multi-rate interface for 4-lane (4x25 Gbps) and 10-lane (10x10 Gbps) bi-directional transmissions. See the technology in action at INTEROP 2012 or visit www.broadcom.com to learn more.

The low power 40 nm CMOS architecture dissipates only 2.5 watts per port, delivering power savings of more than 35 percent as compared to previously available solutions. The BCM84790 features a space-saving 17x17mm BGA package specifically engineered to support CFP network applications. The BCM84793 features a 19x19mm BGA package with the ability to support 10-lane bi-directional transmissions at 10 Gbps each.  This added flexibility ensures support for future-generation networking formats such as CFP2 and CXP.

Optimized for IT professionals who design and manage high-bandwidth data center and enterprise networks, theBCM84790 and BCM84793 gearbox PHYs have the ability to multiplex and demultiplex data across four 25 Gbps channels to (or from) ten 10Gbps channels.  Both devices can also be configured to support four bi-directional lanes at 10Gbps for 40GbE repeater applications, support Ethernet and optical transport networking, and are compliant with the IEEE 802.3ba standard for 100GbE and ITU OTL 4.4 signaling.

Market Drivers:

• Consumer demand and traffic volume continues to rise for high-bandwidth applications(2)
• As the need for higher density processing and transmission of data rises, so does the need for data center, enterprise and core networks to expand from 10GbE and 40GbE to 100GbE(3)
• 100GbE gearbox PHYs a clear requirement for high density networks moving to higher bandwidths(3)
• 100GbE ports are expected to increase more than 50X from 2011 to 2016(4)

Key Features:

• Supports Ethernet and optical transport networking (OTN)
• 100GbE/OTN VSR28 to CAUI interface
• Less than 200 femtoseconds (fs) root mean square (rms) of random jitter on the 25Gbps transmit outputs
• High-speed eye monitoring diagnostics on all data I/O
• Integrated clean-up phase lock loop (PLL) reduces bill of material cost
• Single REFCLK (reference clock) input
• Low latency architecture

Availability

The BCM84790 and BCM84793 are sampling now.  Production release is scheduled for the second half of 2012.

For ongoing news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom, read the B-Connected Blog, or visit Facebook or Twitter. And to stay connected, subscribe to Broadcom's RSS Feed.

Quotes:

Jag Bolaria, Senior Analyst, The Linley Group

"Increasing Internet traffic and rising demand for high-bandwidth content are driving strong growth for 100GbE solutions in the enterprise and data center markets. The bi-directional transmission, low power consumption and space-saving design of Broadcom's new PHYs enable IT organizations to transform their networks and achieve higher performance."

Lorenzo Longo, Broadcom Vice President & General Manager, High Speed Interconnect Products

"Broadcom is committed to providing the broadest portfolio of 10GbE, 40GbE and now 100GbE PHYs in the industry.  Our new 100GbE gearbox PHYs achieve the industry's highest performance and lowest power consumption, a combination which is very difficult to achieve. These industry-leading PHYs also offer the unique advantage of enabling new 100G applications with backward-compatibility to existing 10GbE and 40GbE rates."

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments.  With the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and embedded software solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by Connecting everything®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.

Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks ofBroadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU.  Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

(1) As compared to competitive devices

(2) Cisco Virtual Networking Index, 2011 — 2016

(3) The Linley Group - A Guide to Ethernet Switch and PHY Chips, Eighth Edition

(4) Infonetics, February 2012