Philips Introduces the World's First Single-Chip Silicon-based 12.5 GBPS Asynchronous Optical Cross-Point Switch.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

Optical Fiber Communications 2002

ANAHEIM, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 18, 2002

New Silicon-Germanium Process Technology Delivers the Raw Speed to

Enable 12.5 Gigabit per Second Fiber Network Switching

Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG)(AEX:PHI) today introduced the TZA2060 -- a 12.5 Gbps single-chip asynchronous optical cross-point switch that will bring protocols such as 10 Gigabit Ethernet, SONET and SDH to Metropolitan and Wide Area Networks (MANs and WANs). Made possible by the company's new QUBiC4'G' silicon-germanium semiconductor technology (see the note "About QUBiC4'G'" at the end of this release), the TZA2060 represents a world-first. No other semiconductor company has succeeded in producing a single-chip cross-point switch with the TZA2060's speed, jitter performance and feature set.

The new generation of optical cross-connect systems for which the TZA2060 is designed will replace older generations of digital cross-connects by enabling switching at native line rates up to 12.5 Gbps. Optical cross-connect systems are one of the fastest growing application domains in optical networking. The TZA2060's unsurpassed performance in power consumption and jitter also makes it suitable for other applications such as backplane switching, storage area networks, high-speed test equipment and video switching.

"As Internet service providers, telecommunications companies and network operators upgrade their networks to handle the new generation of streaming media and broadband data communication services, the need for optical exchange equipment that routes data from one place to another will proliferate exponentially," said Jos Lammerts, general manager networking infrastructure at Philips Semiconductors. "The lack of suitable network termination and switching equipment has so far prevented such organizations from taking full advantage of the potential bandwidth and scalability of available network technologies. The TZA2060 will be a key component in cost efficient and scalable applications such as ADM and cross-connect in DWDM systems."

The TZA2060 is a 20x20 asynchronous cross-point switch with uni-cast, multi-cast and broadcast switching capabilities. Its unique internal design, which leverages the ultra-high speed performance of QUBiC4'G' transistors, maintains highly symmetrical rise and fall times and reduces jitter to less than 2 ps (picoseconds) per switch. This extremely low jitter level enables designers to cascade as many as three TZA2060 switches without the need to insert clock/data recovery and re-timing logic in between them. In complex systems such as Clos switches, the result is a significantly lower component count, printed circuit board area, and equipment manufacturing costs.

The TZA2060 also facilitates efficient power management. It operates from a single 2.5V supply and consumes less than 4W, resulting in typical power dissipations of 16W per Terabit of aggregated bandwidth. Its innovative design not only means that the TZA2060 consumes much less power than alternative solutions with similar aggregate bandwidths. It also allows the routing of much smaller amplitude signals, resulting in significantly lower parasitic coupling within the system. All the TZA2060's 12.5 Gbps serial data inputs and outputs are CML compatible.

Evaluation samples of the TZA2060 are available now, together with dedicated application support from Philips that will include fully functional demonstrations of the part with all associated external components and a backplane connector. In volumes of 1,000 pieces the TZA2060 is expected to sell for around US$ 1,950.

About QUBiC4'G' Silicon-germanium Semiconductor Technology

QUBiC4'G' is a new semiconductor process developed by Philips' semiconductor division, that combines ultra high speed SiGe technology with the passive component integration, substrate isolation and dense CMOS logic capabilities of the company's highly acclaimed QUBiC4 BiCMOS process. With ft and fmax figures for QUBiC4'G' transistors exceeding 75 GHz and 100 GHz respectively, this new addition to the company's process technology portfolio provides the raw speed required for applications such as network switches for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and SONET optical fiber networks.

Acronyms

SONET             Synchronous Optical Network
SDH               Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
LAN               Local Area Network
MAN               Municipal Area Network
WAN               Wide Area Network
ADM               Add/Drop Multiplexing
DWDM              Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing
CML               Current-Mode Logic

About Philips

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $28.8 billion (EUR 32.3 billion) in 2001. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, and one-chip TV products. Its 189,000 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, and medical systems. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.semiconductors.philips.com.