Broadcom expands industry's broadest portfolio of 10GbE and 40GbE PHYs

LOS ANGELES, USA: Broadcom Corp. has introduced four new physical layer transceivers (PHYs) to its portfolio of 10 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 40GbE high-speed Ethernet products for optical fiber communications.

The new SFP+ physical layer transceivers (PHYs) include a variety of dual, quad and octal-channel devices for data center and enterprise networks, enabling the transition from 1GbE to 10GbE and 40GbE. Based on advanced 40nm CMOS architecture, the new devices deliver 10 times more bandwidth than previous generation 1GbE PHYs. See Broadcom's complete portfolio of solutions for optical fiber communications at OFC/NFOEC booth # CV-1557.

Consumer demand and the exponential increase in Internet traffic are driving the need for higher density processing and transmission of data. Data center, cloud and enterprise networks are transitioning from 1GbE to 10GbE and 40GbE. Analysts predict overall 10GbE ports to increase from 24 million in 2011 to 76 million in 2015. In addition, 40G port shipments are projected to grow from 36,000 in 2011 to 795,000 in 2015.

Broadcom's new SFP+ and QSFP+ PHYs (BCM84728, BCM84748, BCM84758, and BCM84784) are designed to meet the increasing bandwidth and traffic demands being placed on the network, with greater functionality, flexibility and performance for system managers. All four devices feature Broadcom's fourth generation of EDC technology, enabling data transmission on a 10GbE or 40GbE serial interface. This feature is ideal for applications requiring transmission over multimode fiber (MMF) at distances up to 300m (LRM) using OM3 fiber and SFP+ copper twin-axial cable (CR).

In addition to supporting long reach over multi-mode fiber (LRM), the new PHYs handle short range (SR), long range (LR) and newer extended range (ER and ZR) optical interfaces for a broad range of high-bandwidth applications. The all-digital signal processing (DSP) high-speed, front end, on-chip microcontroller provide the highest performance and flexibility for line card designers.

Multi-rate capabilities allow IT managers to work with 1GbE, 10GbE or 40GbE systems for maximum flexibility. Integrated IEEE 1588 time syncronization operating on a per-channel basis, provides an in-band scheme of precisely-timed packets to traverse multiple systems for voice, video and cellular base station applications. This feature also can be bypassed or disabled for each channel independently.