PMC-SIERRA ANNOUNCES INDUSTRY'S FIRST DUAL PORT GIGABIT ETHERNET CHIP WITH POS-PHY LEVEL 3 INTERFACE.

PMC-Sierra (Nasdaq:PMCS) has announced the PM3386 S/UNI-2xGE dual port Gigabit Ethernet transceiver, the industry's first integrated dual Serializer/Deserializer (SERDES) and Gigabit Media Access Control (MAC) controller with the industry standard POS-PHY Level 3 system interface.

The high density S/UNI-2xGE connects directly to optical modules, offers a standard Gigabit Media Independent Interface (GMII) and operates at low power levels. By leveraging the POS-PHY Level 3 interface, the S/UNI-2xGE enables the development of Gigabit Ethernet line cards used in carrier class networking equipment. The new chip gives system developers substantial design flexibility, speeds time-to-market, and reduces the overall cost of developing Internet Protocol core and edge routers, multi-service switching platforms (MSSPs), and optical networking products.

The small 27 mm x 27 mm S/UNI-2xGE chip is implemented entirely in mainstream 0.18 micron 3.3 / 1.8 volt CMOS technology, provides reduced power consumption and simplified silicon integration. Its power consumption is less than 2 watts/port, which offers up to a 60% power savings over low density Gigabit Ethernet implementations that uses discrete SERDES, Gigabit Ethernet MAC and FPGA devices. With all of these features on one chip, the S/UNI-2xGE device replaces up to six chips.

The S/UNI 2xGE device provides an expedient way to integrate Gigabit Ethernet into multi-service architectures supporting Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Frame Relay (FR), Internet Protocol (IP), and Gigabit Ethernet (GE) traffic at 51 Mbits/s up to 2.5 Gbit/s (OC-48) line rates. With the integration of the POS-PHY Level 3 interface the S/UNI 2xGE does not require glue logic to connect to higher layer devices.

The POS-PHY Level 3 system interface was developed by the SATURN(R) Development Group in December 1998, and is publicly available at http://www.pmc-sierra.com/posphylevel3. This interface specification, in balloting at the Optical Internetworking Forum and recently ratified by the ATM Forum, provides an industry-wide standard for multi-service system interfaces. POS-PHY Level 3 is the industry standard for 2.5 Gbit/s OC-48 and multi-channel 622-Mbit/s OC-12 transmission rates required by the new generation of super routers and layer 3 switches for multi-service voice and data networks. An interface based on this standard is flexible enough to support not only high-speed Packet-over-SONET (POS) Internet traffic, but Gigabit Ethernet and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) applications as well.

The S/UNI-2xGE is packaged in a 27 mm by 27 mm, 352 UBGA package. It is priced at $259 in volume quantities, with samples available in November 2000. A comprehensive support package including reference designs, software drivers, application notes, and bus functional models will simplify design and reduce time to market.