Xilinx Virtex-6 HXT FPGAs target optical transceivers/Calix launches E7-20 platform for multi-terabit fiber access speeds

NOVEMBER 8, 2010 — Xilinx Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX) has announced the immediate availability of Virtex-6 HXT FPGAs that Xilinx says support 40-Gbps and 100-Gbps line cards with flexible port configurations including 1×40 Gbps, 4×10 Gbps, 1×100 Gbps and 10×10 Gbps. Additionally, Virtex-6 HXT FPGAs support the long reach optical requirements of next-generation communications equipment without the need for external re-timer circuitry because of the FPGA’s transceiver jitter performance, Xilinx asserts.

Xilinx has validated Virtex-6 HXT FPGAs interoperability with such optical transceiver suppliers as Avago Technologies. “Avago Technologies is pleased to offer optical transceivers compatible with Virtex-6 FPGAs for standards including 10-Gbps Ethernet,” said Victor Krutul, director of marketing, Fiber Optics Product Division at Avago. “With over 30 years of experience in optical interconnects as part of HP and Agilent, Avago is uniquely able to help FPGA designers make the move from copper to fiber-optic interconnects as connection speeds move to 10 Gbps and beyond.”

Xilinx Virtex-6 HXT devices are designed to seamlessly interface to industry standard SFP+, XFP, and CFP optical modules at line rates up to 11.18 Gbps, addressing next-generation optical transport application needs. Furthermore, through its jitter performance — less than 500 fs rms random jitter at 11.18 Gbps, Xilinx says — and signal integrity, the need for external conditioning circuitry is eliminated. The jitter performance provides the system designer the margin required to build robust high speed interfaces, the company says. A demo of the Virtex-6 HXT device operating at 10 Gbps can be seen on the Xilinx website. www.xilinx.com/virtex6hxt

Optimized for applications that require ultra high-speed serial connectivity, Virtex-6 HXT FPGAs offer what Xilinx claims is the industry’s highest serial bandwidth through a combination of 6.6-Gbps GTX transceivers and 11.18-Gbps GTH transceivers to enable packet and transport, switch fabric, video switching, and imaging equipment.

Other Virtex-6 HXT device features include:

A design optimized for 10G signaling, including Transmit (Tx) pre-emphasis, Receive (Rx) linear equalization and Decision Feedback Equalizer (DFE) to meet tough jitter requirements.
Lower jitter with “superior” DFE and EQ circuits, higher total transceiver count, more BRAM, and a high number of SERDES capabilities.
Design topology that isolates the high performance analog circuits from the noisy digital logic and IO to improve noise performance.
A package design with all serial pins isolated from parallel IO, in-package power planes and capacitors, and a sparse-chevron pinout resulting in 40 dB of isolation between Tx and Rx and 30 dB of isolation between channels.
Overall, the Virtex-6 HXT device performance enables the designer to interface to optical modules directly without the need for external re-timers.

Built on 40-nm process using third-generation Xilinx ASMBL architecture, the Virtex-6 FPGA family is supported by a new generation of development tools and a large library of IP to ensure productive development and design migration. The devices operate on a 1.0 V core voltage with an available 0.9 V low-power option.

NOVEMBER 9, 2010 — Calix, Inc (NYSE: CALX) has upgraded its Unified Access portfolio with the launch of the E7-20 multi-terabit Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP). The E7-20 is designed to provide a very high capacity, low latency, all-fiber access concentrator.

The 20-slot E7-20 is a 2-Tbps access concentrator with the ability to deliver gigabits of content-carrying bandwidth to individual residential and business subscribers. In its first release — which will trial in early 2011 and be ready for deployment mid-year — the E7-20 will support GPON, Active Ethernet, and point-to-point Gigabit Ethernet services on the subscriber side and multiple 10-Gigabit Ethernet transport services on the network side. The E7-20 can deliver 100 Gbps to each of its 20 universal line card slots. This enables the platform to fully support emerging technologies such as 10G GPON, 10-Gigabit Ethernet aggregation, and 100-Gbps Ethernet uplinks.

“The E7-20 is a great example of a new generation of fiber access delivery vehicles,” says Matt Davis, Consumer and SMB Broadband director at IDC. “The bandwidth requirements of the access network are accelerating exponentially as video proliferates. Service Providers will ultimately be required to move beyond existing copper or hybrid infrastructure to fiber-based platforms in order to deliver the advanced services of tomorrow.”

Each E7-20 is designed to serve up to 480 dedicated Active Ethernet subscribers or 5,120 GPON subscribers, with headroom to accommodate more than 20,000 subscribers through the introduction of future higher density and higher capacity line cards. Initially, the platform will come to market with three line cards:

SCP-10GE: A switch control processor, this card has four Gigabit Ethernet SFP ports and two 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports that support both SFP+ and XFP, as well as a 100-Gbps switching capacity
GE-24x: Focused on Active Ethernet and point-to-point Ethernet services, this card provides 12 SFP ports, supporting 24 Gigabit Ethernet ports
GPON-4x: Focused on GPON, this card has four GPON ports, which in turn can support up to 256 subscribers with a 64:1 split

Other features include:

Ring support utilizing ITV G.8032 ERPS and IEEE 802.1w RSTP
10 Gigabit Ethernet/Nx Gigabit Ethernet/Gigabit Ethernet uplinks with RSTP and IEEE 802.3ad link aggregation
Layer 2 switching/forwarding and Layer 3 awareness for scalability and security
IEEE 802.1Q VLANS, 802.1ad VLAN stacking (Q-in-Q), and 802.1p priority
Integrated IGMP v2 snooping and proxy for IPTV
Calix Management System (CMS) support for visibility and management across the Calix Unified Access portfolio