Vitesse’s FlexEQ technology advances signal integrity offering

CAMARILLO, USA: Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. is expanding its industry-leading connectivity signal integrity portfolio with the VSC3172-12, the industry’s first 10G asynchronous 72x72 port crosspoint switch.

With its flexible protocol support, the VSC3172-12 provides an ideal balance of port count, power and package size for various network equipment applications ranging from broadcast video to data centers and Enterprise storage. With this new device, Vitesse’s widely deployed signal integrity crosspoint portfolio delivers the industry’s broadest range of channel densities for any switching application.

The VSC3172-12 leverages Vitesse’s unique FlexEQ technology to offer equalization that is programmable on a global or per-channel basis. FlexEQ enables a superior level of signal integrity engineering, allowing maximum design flexibility in addressing signal integrity issues at the board and system level, thus improving the overall system jitter margin.

Designed for equipment types requiring less than 772 Gbps aggregate bandwidth, the VSC3172-12 delivers up to 40% PCB board area savings versus comparable solutions. This simplifies high-speed signal routing with a smaller footprint solution and improves time-to-market.

The VSC3172-12 is fully protocol agnostic and operates up to 10.709 Gbps. The device features full support for Forward Error Correction (FEC) rates, as well as backwards compatibility to legacy data rates. Additionally, it provides a lower power and smaller size alternative to expensive protocol aware 10G switches to perform functions such as high speed signal fan-out, loopback, protection switching and equalization.

MRV Communications, a global provider of Carrier Ethernet, WDM transport and infrastructure management solutions, uses Vitesse’s high-speed crosspoint products to address the growth of 10G services through its Media Cross Connect (MCC) platform.

The solution enables users to manage a high number of 10G connections, connecting any port to any other port within the system over a single path across the backplane using a non-blocking matrix. The high-speed MCC doubles the number of 10G ports in a system half the size of existing systems, with 144 10G ports in a five rack unit footprint.

“The Media Cross Connect product line leads the market because the platform is based on superior technological innovation and MRV’s strong understanding of our customers’ needs,” said Eli Laufer, VP of global engineering at MRV. “Being able to work with Vitesse’s broad crosspoint portfolio – with its multiple port sizes, data rates and speeds – allows us to provide a flexible signal integrity solution that enables our customers to cost-effectively meet increased and varied data rate commitments without compromising quality or responsiveness.”

“Vitesse was first to introduce integrated signal equalization in crosspoints switches and we continue to raise the innovation bar in this area,” said Kinana Hussain, product marketing manager at Vitesse. “We understand that our customers face technical challenges to scale their systems for higher bandwidth. In many cases, the power, area, and cost penalty of using a high speed switch for routing, switching, and cleaning up signals is simply too high. The VSC3172-12, with its flexible protocol support and equalization capabilities, replaces conventional solutions for such applications.”