Fulcrum, Teranetics announce high density 10GBASE-T switch reference design

CALABASAS, USA: Fulcrum Microsystems and Teranetics announced the availability of a new 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch that packs 24 ports into a 1U chassis.

This new reference design, named Monte Carlo, offers 20 10GBase-T ports and four SFP+ ports, giving networking OEMs a market-ready solution that combines high density and performance with the cost advantage of 10GBase-T over standard copper infrastructure.

Monte Carlo leverages the combination of Fulcrum’s ultra low-latency FocalPoint FM4224 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch chip with Teranetics’ dual-port, triple-rate TN2022 10GBase-T physical layer device, which leads the industry in density and offers latency four to five times lower than that of legacy copper Gigabit Ethernet solutions.

“As enterprise data centers continue to demand increased bandwidth for multimedia applications, the new Monte Carlo platform addresses those needs by offering an efficient method for aggregating bandwidth over the existing enterprise cabling infrastructure,” said Gary Lee, director of product marketing for Fulcrum Microsystems.

“Our collaboration with Teranetics has produced a reference design that is tailored to data centers and enterprise infrastructures where the primary concern is cost-effective bandwidth.”

“10GBASE-T is quickly emerging as the physical medium of choice for 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, because of its ease of use and cost effectiveness,” said Kamal Dalmia, vice president of product marketing at Teranetics. “Partnering with Fulcrum has allowed us to produce the optimum reference design solution for the OEMs and accelerate the adoption of base-T.”

The FocalPoint FM4224 features 24 XAUI ports, utilizing a high performance, low latency Ethernet switch architecture that includes comprehensive Layer 3 functionality along with advanced classification, congestion management and system management capabilities.

These switches contain all the features necessary to enable Ethernet as the single, converged data center fabric, transporting and preserving inter-processor, storage and networking traffic.

Teranetics TN2022 is the company’s second-generation PHY, based on 65 nm process technology. TN2022 consumes only 5.7 watts per port and is the only dual-port 10GBASE-T PHY shipping in high volume today.

The device features multi-rate capabilities, which allow auto-negotiation with existing RJ-45 ports running at 1 Gigabit or 100 Megabits per second. In addition, it provides enhanced cable monitoring and diagnostics capabilities which help OEMs lower the cost of field support.

The Monte Carlo platform is available now to OEMs at a price of $900 per port.