10Gbit Ethernet LAN PHY supports emerging optics

The S/UNI 1x10GE-XP is a single-chip 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN PHY with embedded MAC/PCS and supports industry-adopted XAUI-based optical modules.

The S/UNI 1x10GE-XP is a single-chip 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN PHY with embedded MAC/PCS and supports industry-adopted XAUI-based optical modules.

This device is the latest addition to the Xenon family of SPI-4.2/POS-PHY Level 4-based (PL4) OC-192 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet physical layer products which are now fully compliant with the IEEE802.3ae-2002 final specification.

Examples of ideal networking applications for the S/UNI 1x10GE-XP are large enterprise switches deployed by Fortune 500 companies and university campuses, edge and core routers and SAN applications, such as storage-aware router blades, iSCSI gateways and iSCSI interfaces on Fibre Channel switches.

"We originally built the Xenon Ethernet family of devices to meet the demanding requirements of carrier-class metro network equipment and to enable the convergence of Ethernet and Sonet", said Steve Perna, Vice President and General Manager PMC-Sierra's Service Provider Division.

"Now with the addition of our S/UNI 1x10GE-XP, the Xenon family of devices provides solutions spanning metro optical equipment to enterprise 10GE applications such as Ethernet switches and SAN host-bus adaptors.

This is important as carriers continue to expand their service offerings to include Ethernet without costly migrations away from Sonet/SDH".

The S/UNI 1x10GE-XP solution addresses the market adoption of XAUI as a PHY-to-module interface for 10GE optics.

Today, there are three XAUI-based multisource agreements (MSAs) for 10GE optics (XENPAK, XPAK and the X2).

Many factors are contributing to the deployment of XAUI-based optics such as form factor, hot pluggability and signal integrity.

XAUI-based optical modules have several space-efficient form-factors to choose from some of which are tailored for short and intermediate reach applications (less than 10km) and therefore do not suffer the package size penalty of long-reach optics.

The hot-pluggability feature allows OEMs to reduce inventory-handling costs by offering a single 10GE line card that can support optics populated to order instead of at assembly.

The XAUI interface standard, adopted by this style of optical module, is a very robust board-level interface that provides an extra degree of freedom in the physical design of a platform.

The XAUI interface for the S/UNI 1x10GE-XP is leveraged from PMC-Sierra's industry proven four-channel PM8355 QuadPHY II XAUI to XGMII serialiser/deserialiser (serdes) that provides low power operation and exceptional performance.

The S/UNI 1x10GE-XP has a SPI-4.2/PL4 system-side interface and a XAUI line-side interface with integrated standards compliant 10GE MAC and PCS blocks (figure 3).

As with the rest of the Xenon family, the S/UNI 1x10GE-XP product is designed to meet the requirements of carrier-class networking equipment.

This device offers industrial temperature range operation from -40 to +85C and provides comprehensive Ethernet statistics to support enhanced billing and demanding network management challenges of Ethernet beyond the LAN.

Enhanced on-chip buffering is provided allowing for up to 2km of lossless flow control to prevent packet drop due to network congestion.

The industry standard PL4 system interface is fully SPI-4.2 compliant and allows vendors to support WAN interfaces as well as 10GE LAN and high-density lower rate Ethernet interfaces with a single link-layer solution.

Both service provider and enterprise users identified completion of the final IEEE specification as a major prerequisite for adopting new 10GE technology.

The Xenon devices (S/UNI 1x10GE-XP, S/UNI 1x10GE, and S/UNI 9953) all comply with the approved draft 5.0 of the specification and the soon-to-be-published IEEE802.3ae-2002 final specification.

The PM3393 S/UNI 1x10GE-XP transceiver is packaged in a small footprint 27 x 27mm, 672-pin FCBGA.

First samples of this device will be available in Q4 of 2002.

A comprehensive support package including reference design and applications notes is available on request.

Back to top