Big Bear Networks Selects IBM's Silicon Germanium Technology for Its Photronic Signal Processing Products.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 4, 2002 SiGe Ideally Suited to Forthcoming Big Bear Devices That Compensate For Fiber Impairments in High-Speed Communication Systems Big Bear Networks has adopted silicon germanium (SiGe) A semiconductor material made from silicon and germanium. Germanium is very similar to silicon, but when one layer is grown on top of the other to form the base of the transistor, the resulting transistor can switch faster and yield higher performance. (SiGe) process technology from IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) Microelectronics for its forthcoming Photronic Signal Processing See DSP. family of 10- and 40-gigabit-per-second transponder A receiver/transmitter on a communications satellite. It receives a microwave signal from earth (uplink), amplifies it and retransmits it back to earth at a different frequency (downlink). A satellite has several transponders. and subassembly sub·as·sem·bly n. pl. sub·as·sem·blies An assembled unit forming a component to be incorporated into a larger assembly. products. IBM Microelectronics' high-volume silicon foundry See foundry. in Burlington, Vt., will serve as the manufacturing facility for the PSP (PlayStation Portable) See PlayStation. products, which will begin shipping later this year. Big Bear's SiGe-based PSP products will take the form of 10-gigabit subassemblies and transponders for long-haul applications; and 40-gigabit transponders for cross-office, metro core/inter-office facility and long-haul transmission. PSP technology is designed to overcome the impairments that degrade data-transmission signals over fiber-optic links, enabling telecom carriers to deploy longer and faster fiber links with minimum capital and operational expenditure. Dr. John Paul Mattia, Big Bear co-founder and chief technical officer, said Big Bear has been working with IBM for the past 18 months to apply SiGe technology to its PSP product designs. Big Bear has already produced a number of operational 10- and 40-gigabit devices based on the process. IBM's SiGe technology was selected after Big Bear evaluated various competing process technologies, including Indium Phosphide phosphide Any of a class of chemical compounds in which phosphorous is combined with a metal. Phosphides exhibit a wide variety of chemical and physical properties. Phosphides that are rich in metal have high melting points and are hard, brittle, and chemically inert; these (InP). "In our early development phase we implemented several designs in both SiGe and InP, initially believing that the inherently higher speeds of InP would be required for high-performance 40G products," Mattia said. "However, after side-by-side comparison, we found that SiGe not only produces circuits that achieve the mandatory high performance, but also lets us easily integrate the active intelligence needed to overcome fiber impairments. Big Bear's unique combination of microwave, analog and digital design techniques, combined with IBM's best-in-class SiGe, yields components that push the performance and reach of fiber links. At the same time we gain the benefits of silicon's economies of scale, reliability and widespread customer acceptance as a mainstream technology, plus IBM's proven high-volume manufacturing capability." The ability of SiGe to integrate millions of transistors on a chip was a key factor in its selection, Mattia noted, particularly since Big Bear's PSP technology incorporates a high degree of embedded intelligence. "Since InP circuits are presently limited to 5,000 transistors, this clearly was not the process platform of choice to integrate all the functionality required by the intelligent opto-electronic physical layer. SiGe lets us augment standard functions such as clock and data recovery at 10 and 40G with the integrated signal processing necessary to address the impairments associated with high-speed fiber transmission." "Big Bear's application is a showcase for our SiGe with its high performance and integration capabilities," said Ken Torino, director, Foundry Technologies, IBM Microelectronics. "Big Bear is using IBM's third-generation SiGe technology for its high-speed wireline communication subsystems." About Silicon Germanium Silicon germanium is a process technology in which the electrical properties of silicon, the material underlying virtually all modern integrated circuits, are augmented with germanium germanium (jərmā`nēəm) [from Germany], semimetallic chemical element; symbol Ge; at. no. 32; at. wt. 72.59; m.p. 937.4°C;; b.p. 2,830°C;; sp. gr. 5.323 at 25°C;; valence +2 or +4. to increase performance. SiGe boosts integration capabilities, enabling designers to pack more function onto a single chip, resulting in speed, power and cost savings. IBM first announced its SiGe technology in 1989, introducing it into the industry's first standard, high-volume chips in 1998. Since then, SiGe has been adopted in a wide range of applications, including RF components in cellular handsets, wireless LAN chip sets, high-speed test and measurement equipment, and chip sets for optical data transmission systems. About Big Bear Networks Big Bear's Photronic Signal Processing (PSP) technology, applicable to next-generation 10- and 40-gigabit-per-second optical system products, combines low-cost electronics and digital signal processing See DSP. Digital Signal Processing - (DSP) Computer manipulation of analog signals (commonly sound or image) which have been converted to digital form (sampled). to automatically correct for the fiber impairments (e.g., chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) is a form of modal dispersion where two different polarizations of light in a waveguide, which normally travel at the same speed, travel at different speeds due to random imperfections and asymmetries, causing random spreading of optical pulses. ) that become more severe as systems move toward greater speeds and transmission distances. PSP is the foundation for a line of highly integrated electrical-optical interface solutions that will be deployed in equipment such as DWDM (Dense WDM) The term given to wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) when significantly more channels were being added. Since WDM is increasingly more "dense" all the time, both terms are used synonymously. See WDM. DWDM - wavelength division multiplexing transmission systems, IP/MPLS IP/MPLS Internet Protocol/Multi-Protocol Label Switching routers and switches, SONET/SDH cross-connects and add/drop multiplexers, and optical cross-connects. Big Bear Networks, founded in June 2000 with an initial core team from Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Texas Instruments, currently has 70 employees. The company has raised $60 million in two rounds of private funding; investors include Accel Partners, Austin Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Oak Investment Partners and Sequoia Capital. Big Bear is located at 1591 McCarthy Blvd., Milpitas, CA 95035. For more information, call 408/434-3400 or visit the Big Bear Networks web site at http://www.bigbearnetworks.com. |
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