NetLogic Microsystems announces dual-mode quad-port 10GBASE-KR and 40GBASE-KR4 backplane PHY with energy efficient Ethernet

SANTA CLARA, USA: NetLogic Microsystems Inc. has introduced the NLP3342, the industry’s first dual-mode quad-port 10GBase-KR and 40GBase-KR4 backplane PHY with Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE).

Designed in the advanced 40nm CMOS process, this new NLP3342 device is targeted at transmission of 10Gbps and 40Gbps signals over standard backplanes, and is compliant with the IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet standard to offer significantly lower power consumption.

The NLP3342 PHY device also integrates NetLogic Microsystems’ industry-leading electronic dispersion compensation (EDC), 3-tap transmit pre-emphasis, automatic receive link margin calibration and forward error correction (FEC) technologies to achieve best-in-class performance and robustness of serial data transmission over a wide variety of backplanes.

NetLogic Microsystems’ NLP3342 PHY is ideally suited for next-generation data centers and telecommunications equipment that are capable of scaling power consumption proportionally to the throughput performance of the network. This enables data center and infrastructure network managers to significantly reduce the costs of cooling down data center servers, networking equipment and aggregation platforms.

By being the industry’s first 40Gbps and quad-port 10Gbps PHY solution that supports the EEE standard, NetLogic Microsystems is driving higher energy efficiency while delivering superior jitter and reach performance of next-generation backplane systems.

In addition, the NLP3342 PHY device is the industry’s first product capable of supporting either the 40 Gigabit Ethernet (40GBASE-KR4) or quad channels of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GBASE-KR) modes with the same device. This provides unprecedented scalability for customers to develop a wide range of equipment such as blade servers, ATCA switches and routers, with backplanes that can support multiple form factors and transmission speeds using a single part number from NetLogic Microsystems.

“As blade servers and networking equipment enable high computational processing in the data center and infrastructure networks, the need for high-speed connectivity that can scale from 10Gbps to 40Gbps becomes an important element of these chassis-based systems,” said Jag Bolaria, senior analyst at The Linley Group.

“NetLogic Microsystems continues to drive market-leading innovations by now offering an Energy Efficient Ethernet compliant feature in a quad-port 10GE PHY that in turn allows network owners to deploy green data center and infrastructure networks.”

“The NLP3342 builds upon six generations of field-proven and market-leading 10GE PHY technology at NetLogic Microsystems,” said Stefanos Sidiropoulos, vice president of Physical Layer Products at NetLogic Microsystems.

“Delivering the industry’s first dual-mode 40G and quad-channel 10G backplane PHY solution that integrates Energy Efficient Ethernet enables our customers to develop highly robust and scalable backplanes that meet stringent energy-efficient requirements for high-density systems.”

NetLogic Microsystems’ new NLP3342 supports 10Gbps transmission for XFI-to-KR as well as 40Gbps transmission for XLAUI/XLPPI-to-KR4 modes over standard backplanes. The device consumes 550mW per channel and offers low-power modes with the EEE feature. In addition, the NLP3342 PHY supports Clause 73 auto-negotiation and link training, Clause 74 Forward Error Correction (FEC) and KX/KX4 bypass modes.