New 10-Gigabit Ethernet Switch Chips from Fulcrum Microsystems Smash Latency, Cost Barrier
FocalPoint(TM) family extends Ethernet's role in the data center;
Chip family leads the industry in latency, performance, port density
and power efficiency
CALABASAS, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Nov. 14, 2005—
Fulcrum Microsystems today announced FocalPoint, a breakthrough
10-Gigabit Ethernet switch chip family with 200 nanoseconds (ns) of
total latency -- a ten-times improvement over existing solutions,
making Ethernet the new cost-effective and high-performance choice for
storage, computing and networking backplane and interconnect
applications.
FocalPoint switches are fully-integrated, single-chip solutions
that contain as many as 24 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports and cost less
than $20 per port.
The low latency of FocalPoint switches means Ethernet is
comparable to specialty data center interconnects such as Fibre
Channel, InfiniBand, and Myrinet and can be used as an interconnect
for high-performance computing and storage systems. 10-Gigabit
Ethernet can also now be used as a cost-effective backplane fabric for
blade computing systems or AdvancedTCA and other networking systems.
"History has shown that once Ethernet becomes good enough for an
application, it dominates that application. FocalPoint's rich feature
set and low latency means Ethernet is now better than the high-speed
interconnect alternatives and ready for these applications," said Bob
Nunn, president and CEO of Fulcrum Microsystems. "This is an important
step for the industry; FocalPoint directly enables the next-generation
build-out that has been needed in the data center."
Overcomes Ethernet's Data Center Limitations
FocalPoint is the first Ethernet switch to implement support for
advanced data center topologies, such as fat trees -- a multi-tier
network design that links switches at each tier to maintain high
bandwidth between the endpoints. Fat tree networks are increasingly
used for storage and clustered computing applications. With low
latency and a rich set of data center features, FocalPoint enables the
build-out of multi-tier fat tree systems of thousands of non-blocking
ports, while maintaining sub-microsecond latency from any port in the
network to any other port.
"The use of multiple fabric technologies within industry-standard
platforms extends the range of applications that can be addressed, but
this will tend to fragment the market, reducing the number of vendors
supplying particular configurations," said Simon Stanley, principal
consultant, Earlswood Marketing and research analyst for Light
Reading's Comm Chip Insider. "Fulcrum is betting that by eliminating
the latency issues with Ethernet switching, the vast ecosystem that
surrounds Ethernet will drive much-needed consolidation."
High Performance, Flexible Interfaces and Extended Features
Initially, Fulcrum is offering two members of the FocalPoint
product family:
-- FM2224: Contains 24 quad-SerDes 10-Gigabit Ethernet
interfaces, each of which can be configured to operate in 10
Gbps, 2.5 Gbps and 10/100/1000 modes.
-- FM2112: Contains eight quad-SerDes 10-Gigabit Ethernet
interfaces, along with 16 single-SerDes interfaces that can
support 2.5 Gbps and 10/100/1000 operating modes. The device
is intended to provide an economical solution for dense 2.5
Gbps and 1 Gbps applications.
Both devices offer a robust set of standards-compliant layer-two
Ethernet switch features, including rich VLAN support, link
aggregation, port- and MAC-based security, and Spanning Tree link
management. The switches feature shared and protected packet storage
memory, and support 16K MAC address entries.
Switch and Memory Technology Drives Low Latency
At the core of both devices are two patented Fulcrum technology
blocks: Nexus(R) Terabit Crossbar and RapidArray(TM) Packet Memory.
Nexus leverages Fulcrum's asynchronous technology foundation to
deliver more than a Terabit-per-second of non-blocking throughput with
3ns of internal latency. RapidArray combines the ultra-fast data path
of the Nexus crossbar with standard foundry state bits to deliver
packet memories that offer twice the throughput of commercial
memories, while maintaining comparable density and yield.
Both Nexus and RapidArray are power-efficient technologies,
drawing about half the power per port of competing solutions and
consuming power in direct proportion to traffic load. This results in
power consumption of a modest 150mW per Gbps under full load.
Pricing and Availability
Both chips will be sampling in January 2006. The US list price for
the 24-port FM2224 is $450 in 5,000 unit quantities (less than $20 per
port); the price for the 8/16-port FM2112 is $265 in 10,000 unit
quantities. A fully-integrated 1U-high evaluation platform containing
24 10-Gigabit Ethernet CX4 interfaces will be available in January for
rapid test and development.
About Fulcrum Microsystems
Founded in 2000, Fulcrum Microsystems Inc. is a fabless
semiconductor company focused on developing interconnect switch chips
for next-generation board and system designs. The company's devices
change the paradigm for interconnect, offering low latency,
fine-grained flow control and high throughput which combine to
simplify board design and to build in more flexibility and higher
performance. More information can be found at www.fulcrummicro.com.
Fulcrum, Fulcrum Microsystems and Nexus are registered trademarks
of Fulcrum Microsystems, Inc. FocalPoint and RapidArray are trademarks
of Fulcrum Microsystems, Inc.
Contact:
Fulcrum Microsystems
Mike Zeile, 818-871-8164
Email Contact
or
The David James Agency
David Rodewald, 805-494-9508
Email Contact
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