Cicada Semiconductor Accelerates Industry Pace for the Deployment of Gigabit Ethernet With Breakthrough CMOS Quad-Port DSP Transceiver At Networld+Interop 2001.

Business Editors & Technology Writers

Networld+Interop 2001

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 2001

Cicada's SimpliPHY(TM) Transceiver Enables Next Generation

Gigabit Switches and Routers; Sets Industry Benchmarks for Lowest

Power Consumption At Less Than 1.0 Watt Per Port, Lowest System Cost

and Design Complexity, and Highest Port Density

Cicada Semiconductor Corporation, a technology leader providing silicon solutions for broadband communications, released today the SimpliPHY(TM) CIS8204, the first component in a series of 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet over copper transceivers. Cicada's new device, now in demonstration at the Networld+Interop tradeshow in Las Vegas, is the industry's most advanced Quad port Gigabit Ethernet over copper physical layer (PHY) device. For the first time in the evolution of Ethernet networks, the CIS8204's extremely low power dissipation of less than 1 Watt per port enables pervasive, low cost deployment of Gigabit Ethernet to desktop PCs, throughout data centers, and in rapidly emerging Storage Area Networks (SAN).

"The introduction of the CIS8204 represents a remarkable engineering milestone in the creative application of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and mixed-signal technology to solve the bandwidth bottleneck caused by ever increasing Internet and Intranet traffic," stated Nicholas van Bavel, president and CEO of Cicada Semiconductor. "Our Quad port PHY device provides communication systems designers with a solution which allows them to quickly and simply develop 24 and 48 port switches for Gigabit Ethernet that are as power, cost, and form factor efficient as their Fast Ethernet predecessors. Enabling this breakthrough design-in simplicity to the systems designer is an advanced DSP engine which delivers an unprecedented 1,000 GOPS (1,000 Billion Operations per Second)."

The SimpliPHY(TM) supports all three Ethernet standard speeds - 10, 100 and 1000 Megabits per second (Mbps) - in a single integrated circuit solution with IEEE standards based auto-negotiation to enable easy migration from Fast Ethernet (100 million bits/second) to Gigabit Ethernet (1 billion bits/second) over ubiquitous Category 5 copper cable installations. As a result, the CIS8204 offers true plug and play Gigabit networking, enabling backward compatibility to the installed base of more than 250 million Ethernet ports operating at 100Mbps and 10 Mbps.

Cicada's unique SimpliPIN(TM) I/O technology significantly reduces PCB design challenges and eliminates over 50 external components per quad port device. For example, a 48 port Gigabit switch card for desktop LAN or SAN switches, using the SimpliPHY(TM) transceiver, eliminates more than 600 external system components, as a result of the patented, self-calibrating and adaptive I/O termination technology. This reduced component count also translates into a faster time-to-market by reducing system design time associated with printed circuit board signal integrity issues such as ringing, EMI, latch-up, and timing compensation.

To further reduce overall systems cost, each port in the CIS8204 supports the new RGMII (Reduced Gigabit Media Independent Interface) and RTBI (Reduced Ten Bit Interface) system interfaces, in addition to standard GMII and TBI interfaces. By utilizing the RGMII and RTBI interfaces, systems designers require less than half the number of pins when interfacing to a Gigabit MAC or switch ASIC. For the same 48-port system mentioned above, using RGMII instead of GMII results in an overall savings of 624 I/O pins, further simplifying design complexity and overall cost.

The design of the CIS8204 represents the most process portable Gigabit PHY in the industry, implemented in a high volume, mainstream digital CMOS process that does not require expensive analog process modules. This comprehensive approach to complex DSP and mixed signal design offers systems designers a future-proof migration path to Gigabit PHYs with sub 500mW power consumption and maximum port density, with the added benefit of providing rapid customization and ASIC integration capability.

The SimpliPHY(TM) device also supports automatic detection and correction of cable pair swaps, pair skew, and pair polarity, along with the Automatic MDI/MDI-X cross over function. The Auto MDI/MDI-X feature offers customers the benefit of trouble-free, end-to-end tolerance to common cable connection errors and the elimination of external crossover cables.

Cicada's SimpliPHY(TM) Gigabit Ethernet transceiver uses leading edge DSP architecture, advanced mixed-signal processing and high speed digital CMOS processes to implement digital adaptive equalization, digital timing recovery, echo cancellation, cross-talk cancellation, low EMI line drivers, encoders, and decoders. Cicada's high-speed/high precision analog-to-digital converters deliver robust and reliable performance in virtually any noisy cable installation.

To optimize board layout, the SimpliPHY(TM) transceiver is packaged in a 388 pin Plastic Ball Grid Array (PBGA), featuring body widths of either 27mm (millimeters) or 35 mm. These space efficient packaging options enable the use of stacked RJ-45 connectors (double height RJ-45 connectors mounted to a PCB board), effectively doubling the capacity of next generation switches.

Availability

The CIS8204 is now being sampled through Cicada's OEM Access Partners Program.

About Cicada Semiconductor

Cicada Semiconductor is a leading developer of DSP and mixed signal based silicon solutions that enable broadband communications within Local, Wide, and Storage Area Networks. Using proprietary design and simulation methodologies and Cicada's extensive expertise in providing digital communication solutions, the Company designs, develops, and manufactures integrated circuits for some of the most significant broadband communications markets, including high-speed Local Area Networking (Gigabit Ethernet), telecommunications (T3), and broadband Internet access (DSL). Additional information is available at www.cicada-semi.com.

SimpliPHY(TM), SimpliPIN(TM) and the eye diagram logo are registered trademarks of Cicada Semiconductor and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries.