PMC-Sierra intros enterprise 10 Gigabit Ethernet LANPHY device to support XAUI-based optics.

PMC-Sierra (Nasdaq:PMCS) has introduced the PM3393 S/UNI 1x10GE-XP, a highly integrated, low power, all-purpose Ethernet solution for use in enterprise, storage, and metro applications.

The new S/UNI 1x10GE-XP is a single-chip 10 Gigabit Ethernet LANPHY with embedded MAC/PCS and supports industry-adopted XAUI-based optical modules. This device is the latest addition to the XENON family of SPI-4.2/POS-PHY Level 4-based (PL4) OC-192 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet physical layer products which are now fully compliant with the IEEE 802.3ae-2002 final specification. Examples of ideal networking applications for the S/UNI 1x10GE-XP are large enterprise switches deployed by Fortune 500 companies and university campuses, edge and core routers (see figure 1), and SAN applications (see figure 2) such as storage-aware router blades, iSCSI gateways, and iSCSI interfaces on Fibre Channel switches.

"We originally built the XENON Ethernet family of devices to meet the demanding requirements of carrier-class metro network equipment and to enable the convergence of Ethernet and SONET," said Steve Perna, vice president and general manager PMC-Sierra's Service Provider Division. "Now with the addition of our S/UNI 1x10GE-XP, the XENON family of devices provides solutions spanning metro optical equipment to enterprise 10GE applications such as Ethernet switches and SAN host-bus adaptors. This is important as carriers continue to expand their service offerings to include Ethernet without costly migrations away from SONET/SDH."

The S/UNI 1x10GE-XP solution addresses the market adoption of XAUI as a PHY-to-module interface for 10GE optics. Today, there are three XAUI-based multi-source agreements (MSAs) for 10GE optics (XENPAK, XPAK and the X2). Many factors are contributing to the deployment of XAUI-based optics such as form factor, hot pluggability and signal integrity. XAUI-based optical modules have several space-efficient form-factors to choose from, some of which are tailored for short and intermediate reach applications (less than 10 km) and therefore do not suffer the package size penalty of long-reach optics. The hot-pluggability feature allows OEMs to reduce inventory handling costs by offering a single 10GE line card which can support optics populated to order instead of at assembly. The XAUI interface standard, adopted by this style of optical module, is a very robust board-level interface which provides an extra degree of freedom in the physical design of a platform. The XAUI interface for the S/UNI 1x10GE-XP is leveraged from PMC-Sierra's industry proven four channel PM8355 QuadPHY II XAUI to XGMII Serializer/Deserializer (SERDES) that provides low power operation and exceptional performance.

The S/UNI 1x10GE-XP has a SPI-4.2/PL4 system-side interface and a XAUI line-side interface with integrated standards compliant 10GE MAC and PCS blocks (figure 3). As with the rest of the XENON family, the S/UNI 1x10GE-XP product is designed to meet the requirements of carrier-class networking equipment. This device offers industrial temperature range operation from -40 to +85 degrees and provides comprehensive Ethernet statistics to support enhanced billing and demanding network management challenges of Ethernet beyond the LAN. Enhanced on-chip buffering is provided allowing for up to 2 kilometers of loss-less flow control to prevent packet drop due to network congestion. The industry standard PL4 system interface is fully SPI-4.2 compliant and allows vendors to support WAN interfaces as well as 10GE LAN and high-density lower rate Ethernet interfaces with a single link-layer solution.

Both service provider and enterprise users identified completion of the final IEEE specification as a major prerequisite for adopting new 10GE technology. The XENON devices (S/UNI 1x10GE-XP, S/UNI 1x10GE, and S/UNI 9953) all comply with the approved draft 5.0 of the specification and the soon-to-be-published IEEE 802.3ae-2002 final specification.

The PM3393 S/UNI 1x10GE-XP transceiver is packaged in a small footprint 27 mm by 27 mm, 672-pin FCBGA. First samples of this device will be available in Q4 of 2002. Product details are available on PMC-Sierra's website at http://www.pmc-sierra.com/products. A comprehensive support package including reference design and applications notes is available on request.