September 27, 2004 Tokyo--Mitsubishi Electric is announcing the first 10 Gigabit Ethernet PHY IC (M69851WG) featuring inter-frame link signaling technology (ILS) developed by NTT. ILS makes it possible to provide SONET-like network management functionality known as operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning (OAM&P) over wide area Ethernet services.
The Internet service infrastructure in the WAN/MAN currently uses the SONET/SDH standardized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). In order to meet the increasing demand of Internet-based services such as the IP telephone, the wide area and meto IP networks are likely to employ Ethernet technology, which is the LAN standard. However, Ethernet's lack of network management functionality is always pointed out as a technology shortcoming.
The ILS technology makes it possible to provide SONET-like management function to Ethernet-based network services. The M69851WG is the first 10-Gigabit Ethernet single chip transceiver integrating ILS functions, according to Mitsubishi. The M69851WG is designed and manufactured using 100-nm gate SOI-CMOS technology providing less power consumption (below 1.2W), high noise resistance, and latch-up free product, which is suitable for 10-Gbit/sec transceiver modules such as XENPAK/X2/XPAK and XFP platform used in routers and servers.
The M69851WG is the first 10 Gigabit Ethernet PHY IC to integrate the ILS technology to provide SONET-like OAM&P service such as monitoring the error counts, distinguishing the damaged points in the network, or alternative network paths in case of network trouble, over Ethernet.
For conventional Ethernet network services, quality of service had been sacrificed to achieve low cost network services. By using this ILS technology, equivalent quality of service as existing SONET is provided over wide-area Ethernet network at an Ethernet price. The M69851WG is compliant with 10 Gigabit Ethernet/Fibre Channel standards, and it is usable in transceiver products for 10 Gigabit Ethernet/Fibre Channel or XFP line cards.
When the M69851WG is combined with Renesas Technology's DCU (M302D1F4), the XENPAK registers can be emulated by the DCU and its free reference firmware becomes programmable. With this capability, future changes in XENPAK standards or custom features can be adapted by modifying the firmware within the DCU. This chip-set solution also provides download features of all initial data (NVR) and firmware program using IEEE 802.3ae standard serial interface (MDIO), so that the XENPAK/X2/XPAK module products become in-field upgradeable.
The M69851WG features a 289-pin BGA (14x14x1.66mm) package. The sample price for the M69851WG is $280. The product will begin shipping on October 12, 2004.