BroadLight launches BL23500 40-nm GPON processor family/Vitesse PHYs target high-density Carrier Ethernet, mobile backhaul, and enterprise networks
AUGUST 2, 2010 By Stephen Hardy — GPON chip vendor BroadLight has unveiled the BL23500, its third-generation GPON processor family.
The BL23500 devices, made via a 40-nm process, will combine a MIPS controller, the in-house developed RunnerGrid Network Processor, and a VoIP DSP, says Didi Ivancovsky, BroadLight founder and vice president of marketing. BroadLight will target the device family at both GPON ONTs and residential gateways. The first members of the chip family will become available during the fourth quarter of this year.
The SoCs will feature the new “Lilac” version of the RunnerGrid Network Processor, which boasts 2000 DMIPS and 15 Mpps, Ivancovsky says.
The BL23500 family will include:
The 16×16-mm BL23570 for GPON VoIP SFU/gateway applications
The 24×24-mm BL23530 for GPON VoIP SFUs designs
The 16×16-mm BL23550 for GPON MDU applications
The 16×16-mm BL23580, a GPON VoIP SFU/gateway application processor
The 10×10-mm BL23510, for GPON SFU and SFP transceiver designs.
The first two devices on this list should be available by the end of this year, with the rest following in 2011, according to Ivancovsky.
The GPON processor family will be compatible with all OLTs on the market, support Active Ethernet applications, and feature a variety of power-saving features (including Energy Efficient Ethernet and power-saving modes) that make it the lowest-power family available, Ivancovsky asserts.
“Lower power consumption is a big selling point for operators looking for high-performance, low-cost, mass-market solutions,” said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and video at Infonetics Research. “BroadLight’s third-generation 40-nm GPON processor family is an optimized solution taking operators’ needs into consideration and applying them to innovative new fiber access processors that deliver service processing capabilities, field proven interoperability, and low power consumption at very low costs.”
AUGUST 10, 2010 — Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (Pink Sheets: VTSS) has introduced its latest 10G Ethernet physical-layer SerDes. Designed for high-density 10G aggregation in emerging 40G/100G Ethernet backbones, mobile backhaul/transport, and enterprise networks, the VSC8488 and VSC8484 dual and quad Ethernet PHYs are the first such devices brought to market that support Synchronous Ethernet and other precision timing capabilities, along with working and protection failover capability required to meet carrier resiliency requirements, Vitesse asserts.
The VSC8488 and VSC8484 integrate numerous differentiating features, Vitesse says:
Both devices include a crosspoint switch, enabling easier design of redundant failover systems
Vitesse says its analog electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) implementation results in a total path latency of 1 ns, compared to DSP-based latencies measuring hundreds of nanoseconds, thus enabling low-latency system design
Both devices support 40GBase-KR4, 40GBase-CR4, 40GBase-CR10, nAUI, and nPPI high-speed I/O requirements, enabling systems designed today to be ready for upgrade to 40G/100G
The chips’ receiver performance and low-jitter SONET-compliant transmit path enables the user to support a broad array of module formats including all of the present XFP, SFP+, QSFP+, and CFP host applications with high system link margin.
For mobile backhaul/transport applications, the devices support Synchronous Ethernet timing, with IEEE 1588 timing support on the near-term roadmap. At the other end of the application spectrum, Vitesse says the devices offer insertion loss and crosstalk compensation capabilities well in excess of the 10GBase-KR backplane standard. The insertion loss compensation ability of 35 dB and insertion loss to crosstalk ratio (ICR) support down to 6 dB exceed KR requirements, according to Vitesse. In addition to supporting signal degradations in excess of the KR link requirements, the devices sustain full KR compliant rate auto-negotiation and link optimization.
“Across the network, from the initial access points at mobile backhaul/transport and broadband to the core, system needs demand rapid and accelerating bandwidth expansion. Additionally, the bandwidth is being added during a transition period in network implementation from SONET/TDM to Ethernet,” said Gary Paules, product marketing manager at Vitesse. “Because the VSC8488 and VSC8484 dual and quad 10G PHYs uniquely address these expansion and transition challenges, designers can accelerate development of 40G/100G Ethernet backbones, mobile backhaul/transport, and Ethernet networks by leveraging the unique capabilities of these new Vitesse devices.”
“Per our latest networking port count analysis released in April, 10G ports shipments approached 2M in calendar 2009 and cumulative 10/40/100G port shipments will grow to 35M by calendar year 2014, a 5-year CAGR of 59 percent,” said Andrew Schmitt, directing analyst, optical at Infonetics Research. “Products such as Vitesse’s multichannel 10G SerDes are well positioned to support the ongoing 10G port density ramp along with the migration to 40G and 100G implementations.”
