Chipset drives Fibre Channel up to 4.25Gbit/s

Analog Devices has developed a small-form-factor pluggable optical transceiver chipset and reference design that supports both gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel datarates up to 4.25Gbit/s.

Analog Devices has developed a SFP (small form factor pluggable) optical transceiver chipset and reference design that supports both gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel datarates up to 4.25Gbit/s in SAN (storage area network) equipment.

According to market research firm IDC, Fibre Channel switch port shipments are expected to grow annually by an average of 40% through 2008.

Optical transceivers that connect to Fibre Channel switches at 4.25Gbit/s will be key components in this market, enabling developers of SAN equipment to double the existing datarate, while remaining compatible with older modules running at 1 and 2Gbit/s datarates.

"Analog Devices' 4x Fibre Channel transceiver chipset and reference design offers optical transceiver designers a turnkey solution with best-in-class performance for power, sensitivity and eye quality", said Peter Real, Product Line Director for Analog Devices' High-Speed Networking Group.

"By making both the SFP Fibre Channel chipset and reference design available at the same time, Analog Devices is enabling optical transceiver manufacturers to reduce the time it takes to bring their SAN products to market".

The high-performance 1x/2x/4x SFP chipset meets the requirements of the Fibre Channel Multisource Agreement specifications and is optimised for SFF-8472 digital diagnostics.

The existence of an MSA standardises modules, offering the market significant time and cost savings over custom modules.

The SFP chipset includes four Analog Devices' products designed to work seamlessly together.

On the receive chain, the ADN2882, a 4.25Gbit/s TIA (transimpedance amplifier), has a sensitivity of -22dBm, while dissipating only 75mW of power.

The ADN2892, a 4.25Gbit/s limiting amplifier, features selectable bandwidth for operation at the 1x and 2x Fibre Channel rates (1.063 and 2.125Gbit/s) and the gigabit Ethernet rate (1.25Gbit/s) ensuring backwards compatibility to 1x and 2x Fibre Channel modules, while dissipating 160mW of power On the transmit side, Analog Devices offers a choice of laser diode drivers.

The ADN2871 single loop LDD supports VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) DFB (distributed feedback) and FP (Fabry-Perot) lasers, and provides over 45% eye margin to the 4x Fibre Channel mask.

The ADN2870 dual-loop laser diode driver automatically controls DFB and FP lasers over temperature and compensates for laser aging, thus reducing or eliminating the need for expensive temperature calibration.

Use of Analog Devices' ADuC7020 precision microcontroller allows the module function to be set in software or control more complicated and higher performance modules.

On a single-chip, the microcontroller integrates a powerful 32bit RISC core with precision data conversion technology that supports up to 16 channels of fast, 12bit analogue-to-digital conversion and up to four 12bit digital-to-analogue convertors.

The 1x/2x/4x multirate reference design includes an SFP board and the optics to enable immediate evaluation, speed time to market and reduce development costs.

In addition, the reference design includes a host board, I2C support, Gerber files, object and source code for the microcontroller, a graphical user interface and technical documentation.

The SFP reference design is available now.

The ADN2882 TIA, ADN2892 limiting amplifier and ADN2870 dual-loop laser driver are available in production quantities now.

Samples of the ADN2882 TIA are available in either die form or in a receiver optical subassembly (ROSA).

The ADN2871 single-loop laser driver will sample in February of 2005.

The ADuC7020 precision microcontroller is sampling now and will be available in production quantities in July 2005.

The chipset will sell in high volume for $3.90.

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