• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Broadcom Announces Industry's Lowest Power 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN/WAN Transceiver

Posted on: Monday, 6 March 2006, 09:00 CST

ANAHEIM, Calif., OFC/NFOEC 2006, March 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadcom Corporation , a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today introduced a 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) physical layer (PHY) device that exceeds the stringent IEEE requirements for local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs) while providing the industry's lowest power solution. This new PHY chip further expands Broadcom's industry leading Ethernet networking platform by enabling 10GbE data to be transported over an existing synchronous optical network (SONET)/ synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) backbone, resulting in tremendous efficiencies in power, cost and board or module-level real estate. This enables customers to prioritize traffic over both LAN and WAN fibre links by supporting the Broadcom(R) StrataXGS(R) III service aware flow control (SAFC) protocol at the physical layer -- which too is an industry first.

The 10GbE market has a healthy growth outlook as outlined by Dell'Oro market research, which predicts that 10GbE port shipments will grow from 854,000 ports in 2006 to 1.87 million ports in 2007. The growth is driven by the demand for an increase in bandwidth fueled by the convergence of voice, data, and video. The variety of data types and large number of ports also mean that networks are increasingly looking for the flexibility to interface not only to the LAN but also to a SONET/SDH backbone as a means to provide higher speed interconnections between locations in different cities or metropolitan areas.

"As SONET/SDH remains the foundation for high-speed network connectivity, Broadcom has steadily built up its product portfolio to provide PHY interface support from 10GbE LAN to SONET/SDH networks," said Jag Bolaria, Senior Analyst of the Linley Group. "With Broadcom's leadership in the Ethernet and SONET space, coupled with its system level expertise, its new low power 10GbE LAN/WAN PHY should gain good customer traction."

Announced today is Broadcom's new BCM8705 10GbE LAN/WAN PHY, which dissipates only 1.1 watts in WAN mode and 0.9 watts in LAN mode. As a result, power dissipation is now dramatically reduced, which addresses a major concern for equipment designers. In WAN PHY mode, the BCM8705 takes 10GbE data from either a media access controller (MAC) or a switch via the XAUI interface, maps the Ethernet traffic onto an OC-192 frame and transmits the serial data over the XFI interface for connection on to a SONET backbone while still meeting the stringent International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard for SONET/SDH long-haul networks and the IEEE standard for 10GbE LAN networks.

"With the introduction of this innovative, low power BCM8705 10GbE LAN/WAN PHY, Broadcom is leveraging its system expertise in the Ethernet market, as well as its SONET/SDH market leadership to develop a best in class product that enables our customers to reduce and simplify their systems," said Bob Salem, Senior Product Line Manager of Broadcom's Optical Line of Business. "We are pleased that a true LAN/WAN PHY solution is finally available to the market and Broadcom has delivered it."

The BCM8705 10GbE LAN/WAN PHY implements unique features that set it apart from the competition, such as:

* Service aware flow control support: In conjunction with Broadcom's Ethernet switch products, the BCM8705 supports SAFC so that customers can identify the priority of each 10GbE data packet for processing. * Jumbo packet support in WAN mode for transferring large data files. * A complete SONET/SDH performance monitoring block that includes a dedicated serial port to connect to an external controller (required for most ITU networks) so that it can process the status of the SONET/SDH overhead. * On-chip built-in self test (BIST) generators and checkers along with a number of different loopback modes allow for independent diagnostics on the PHY. * Staged device power up mode to minimize in-rush current upon power up or in hot plug applications. * Small, lead free (Pb-Free) package -- 13 x 13 mm plastic BGA saves PCB space and accommodates high density line card applications. Availability and Pricing

The BCM8705 10GbE LAN/WAN PHY is now sampling to early adopters and is priced at $70 each in OEM quantities. Volume production is expected in the second quarter of 2006.

Broadcom is demonstrating the product at OFC/NFOEC 2006 at the Anaheim (Calif.) Convention Center, Booth # 3177, March 7-9, 2006.

Broadcom also has 2x10Gbe Up-Link, 8x10GbE Switch, XFP and BCM8705 evaluation boards now available to help accelerate customers' time to market.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Our products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. Broadcom provides the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything(R).

Broadcom, one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies with annual revenue of more than $2.5 billion, is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at 1-949-450-8700 or at http://www.broadcom.com/.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates,""expects,""intends,""plans,""predicts,""believes,""seeks,""estimates,""may,""will,""should,""would,""could,""potential,""continue,""ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.

Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with the BCM8705 include, but are not limited to, general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for enterprise networking applications; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets; our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our existing products and services or demand for new products requested by our customers; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; our dependence on a few significant customers for a substantial portion of our revenue; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; our ability to retain, recruit and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the positions and numbers, with the experience and capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a cost-effective and timely manner; competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party semiconductor foundries and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly facilities; the effects of new and emerging technologies; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; the quality of our products and any remediation costs; the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations, particularly in light of recent events; the effects of natural disasters, public health emergencies, international conflicts and other events beyond our control; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; and other factors.

Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.

Broadcom(R), the pulse logo, Connecting everything(R), the Connecting everything logo and StrataXGS(R) are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Broadcom Trade Press Contact Mike He Public Relations Manager 408-922-8083 mhe@broadcom.com Broadcom Investor Relations Contact T. Peter Andrew Vice President, Investor Relations 949-926-5663 andrewtp@broadcom.com Broadcom Technical Contact Bob Salem Sr. Product Line Manager 949-926-6882 bsalem@broadcom.com

Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Enterprise Networking

CONTACT: Trade Press, Mike He, Public Relations Manager,+1-408-922-8083, mhe@broadcom.com, or Investor Relations, T. Peter Andrew,Vice President, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com, orTechnical, Bob Salem, Sr. Product Line Manager, +1-949-926-6882,bsalem@broadcom.com, all of Broadcom Corporation

Web site: http://www.broadcom.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

More News in this Category