Agere Systems Announces Availability of Industry's First Multi-Terabit OC-768c Switch Fabric For Metro and Core Networks

ALLENTOWN, Pa., March 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Agere Systems (NYSE: AGR.A - news), the world leader in communications semiconductors, today announced sample availability of its protocol-independent switch fabric, called the PI-40, a multi-stage, multi-terabit OC-768c- capable switch fabric for high-performance metro and core infrastructure networks at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco this week.

Offering the industry's first provisionable OC-12c to OC-768c interfaces, the PI-40 solution combines highly efficient switching with low-power integrated serializer-deserializer (SERDES) technology to perform terabit routing at the core of the Internet, and aggregation at the edge of the network. The solution helps speed time-to-market as well as lower system cost, space and power for network OEMs, while simplifying complex router and switching system design and increasing line speed and system capacity.

The PI-40 solution is Agere's third-generation switch fabric. Based on Agere's well-known Atlanta(tm) chip memory space memory switching architecture, the PI-40 offers increased scalability and performance. It consists of three devices: the PI-40X, for aggregation/concentration, queuing and scheduling; the PI-40C for crossbar arbitration and switching, and the PI-40SAX, a single-chip standalone 40 gigabit-per-second (Gbit/s) switch that includes the capabilities of the PI-40X and PI-40C. Target applications include multi-protocol core and edge switches and routers, multi-service optical core and edge devices, service-aware switches and provisioning platforms, broadband access equipment and storage area networks.

"The PI-40 is the industry's first multi-terabit solution with OC-768c support," said Ed Letchak, senior marketing manager for switching products at Agere Systems.

"It enables OEMs to build very large, scalable, multi-terabit quality of service (QoS)-aware packet/cell switching systems, eliminates the hassle of developing expensive ASIC-based solutions and significantly reduces development time and costs, while increasing their competitive edge."

"Agere Systems continues to get it right. With provisionable OC-12c to OC-768c interfaces, and any combination of these interfaces on the PI-40 solution, Agere now offers a switch fabric that can operate all the way from their low-speed OC-12c APC processor up to their high-speed OC-192c 10 Gbit/s processor," said John G. Metz, principal analyst with Metz International, Ltd., based in Harvard, Mass.

The PI-40X and PI-40C are quality of service (QoS)-preserving fabrics that linearly scale in chip count from 80 Gbit/s to 2.5 Tbit/s. They support up to 1024 ports and are non-blocking in construction. The PI-40X uses advanced queuing structure to avoid head-of-line (HOL) blocking, and can switch full-duplex 40 Gbit/s user data. The PI-40C performs arbitration and crossbar functionality at 160 x 160 Gbit/s. A single PI-40SAX device can be used to build more economical and smaller switch fabrics needing 40 Gbit/s of full-duplex throughput. Finally, the PI-40 offers one of the highest levels of QoS and end-to-end flow control among high-capacity fabric offerings, while supporting advanced traffic management features for voice-over-IP (VoIP), service level agreements (SLA) and virtual private networks (VPN).

The PI-40X features 40 2.5 Gbit/s full-duplex integrated SERDES I/O ports with integrated clock data recovery (CDR) while the PI-40C features 64 2.5 Gbit/s full-duplex integrated SERDES I/O ports with integrated CDR. Together, the PI-40X and PI-40C consume 1 W per 1 Gbit/s of switching traffic in an application, and are among the industry's lowest-powered solutions. To save power, both devices have a per I/O power-down option. The PI-40X and PI-40C devices support ATM, IP and TDM traffic by supporting a programmable selection of cell payload sizes 64, 72 and 80 bytes, and advance scheduling that provides the appropriate service for specific applications. The high level of integration significantly reduces system cost, power and space while offering customers the flexibility and scalability to build fabric interfaces from 80 Gbit/s to 2.5 Tbit/s.

For example, customers need only 16 PI-40X devices and four PI-40C devices to build a 320 Gbit/s system, compared with hundreds of chips in competitive solutions for the same application.

Agere's PI-40 solution also offers flexible system configurations with support for centralized, distributed and stackable fabrics. It supports both 1+1 and 1:N fabric redundancy as well as both uni-cast and multi-cast switching with separate embedded cell buffers for each kind of traffic -- all without need for external memory.

The PI-40 scheduler supports three scheduling policies to ensure QoS: strict priority for high priority traffic, guaranteed bandwidth for real-time traffic, and weighted round robin for best effort traffic. These scheduling policies, combined with support for three levels of back pressure--device level, port level and queue level--provide system designers absolute control over traffic flow.

The PI-40 interfaces gluelessly to Agere's OC-192c 10 Gbit/s PayloadPlus(r) network processor and traffic manager solution and is interoperable with third-party, off-the-shelf interface chips using Agere's field programmable system-on-a-chip technology.

Support tools

Multiple system parameters must be taken into consideration before customers can start designing a system. In applications such as multi-service switching (MSS) platforms, the handling of various traffic patterns needs to be considered in system performance. Also, many different line card configurations can occur in MSS platforms, requiring evaluation of system performance at different capacity configurations. The need for a comprehensive software tool is evident.

Agere supports customer requirements for software simulation tools on the Pi-40 switch fabric with a Java-based performance simulator tool that can operate on Unix Solaris, Windows NT and Windows 98/2000. This simulator replicates the performance of the PI-40X, PI40-C and PI-40SAX devices. In addition, the simulator includes a traffic generator/analyzer that can generate input data streams to the fabric, interpreting simulation results in a meaningful format. It also provides statistical performance parameters of the fabric, including average latency, maximum and minimum latency, maximum fabric port data throughput and maximum fabric data throughput.

Finally, the PI-40 performance simulator supports multiple I/O configurations, giving customers the option to evaluate product capability for specific application requirements. Customers can gain confidence in early-stage system design and start system simulation and development earlier, which translates to a critical time-to-market advantage.

Pricing and availability

Samples of the PI-40X and PI-40C devices are available in 2Q02 with volume production in 4Q02. The PI-40X is packaged in a 1788 FCBGA and is priced at $1100 in 1k quantities. The PI-40C is packaged in a 1325 FCBGA and is priced at $1230 in 1k quantities. Samples of the PI-40SAX will be available after PI-40X and PI-40C. The PI-40 performance simulator is available now.

More information about Agere's products including online data sheets, application notes and notifications can be found at http://www.agere.com. Customers may also call the Agere Systems Customer Response Center from the US at 1-800-372-2447, Dept. A20; in Canada: 1-800-553-2448); fax number 1-610-712-4106, outside of North America, call 1-610-712-4323; email: docmaster@agere.com; or write to Agere Systems, Room 30L-15P-BA, 555 Union Boulevard, Allentown, Pa. 18109.

Agere Systems is the world's No.1 provider of components for communications applications with leadership in optical components and integrated circuits. This dual capability uniquely positions Agere to deliver integrated solutions that form the building blocks for advanced wired, wireless, and optical communications networks. Agere also designs and manufactures a wide range of semiconductor solutions for communications-related devices used by consumers such as cellular phones, modems and hard disk drives for personal computers and workstations. In addition, the company supplies complete wireless computer networking solutions through the ORiNOCO(TM) product line.

More information about Agere Systems is available from its Web site at http://www.agere.com.

PayloadPlus is a registered trademark and Atlanta is a trademark of Agere Systems Inc.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on information available to Agere as of the date hereof. Agere's actual results could differ materially from the results stated or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, completion of the distribution of Agere stock by Lucent Technologies, customer demand for our products and services, control of costs and expenses, timely completion of employment reductions and other restructuring and consolidation activities, price and product competition, keeping pace with technological change, dependence on new product development, reliance on major customers and suppliers, availability of manufacturing capacity, components and materials, general industry and market conditions and general domestic and international economic conditions including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations. For a further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2001, and report on Form 10-Q for the period ending December 31, 2001. Agere disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.