Velio Communications, Inc., a provider of high bandwidth communications semiconductors, announced that Altamar Networks is deploying Velio's VC3003 140x140 Crosspoint Switch in the heart of the recently announced Titanium Optical Network System. Velio's switching fabric, combined with other Altamar technology innovations, enables Titanium to be scalable to 2 million OC-48 ports for a maximum switching bandwidth of more than five petabits per second.
OEO (optical/electrical/optical) switch fabrics like the VC3003 provide a combination of the functionality required by the carriers and the cost effectiveness provided by proven high density CMOS ICs. Large OEO switch fabrics that switch at the STS-48 level provide the grooming required to manage traffic in the core of the network. All-optical switches perform their switching at the transmission rate, typically 10Gb/s. Carriers are looking to maximize the utilization and revenue on their 10Gb/s trunks with the functionality offered by an OEO switch.
For Titanium, Altamar required ICs with the highest density, which would easily scale to the very high port counts. The VC3003 Crosspoint Switch is a 140x140 switching fabric with a speed per port that exceeds the SONET data rate of 2.5Gb/s (OC-48). The company claims that this device is the largest crosspoint switch, and is the first multi-rate crosspoint to incorporate Clock and Data Recovery (CDR) on each input.
The Velio VC3003 is designed to solve the difficult problem of directly connecting 2.5Gb/s signals from one integrated circuit, through backplane connectors, and over more than one meter of conventional printed circuit board (PCB) material. Given the high density/high port count demands of Titanium, the ability of devices to directly interconnect without buffers or external CDRs is critical to managing component count and power.
The VC3003 is a 140x140 Crosspoint switch, where each port can operate at data rates from 0.95Gb/s to 3.125Gb/s. Each port performs retiming at its input, and each port's output utilizes pre-emphasis for driving lengths of printed circuit board and/or optics. These Gigacore I/O are ideal for assembling large multistage fabrics because large I/O count systems can be assembled over multiple cards across a conventional backplane without buffers or retiming. The ability of the VC3003 to retime signals permits it to double as a very high port count eye opener as well.
Other products incorporating the Gigacore include the VC3002 72x72 Crosspoint Switch, the VC1003 Octal SerDes, the VC1013 Quad SerDes, and the VC2002 72x72 Grooming Switch, which has STS-1 granularity. The VC3003 is supported with a complete design environment, including an evaluation board and a design kit, which includes models.
About Velio Communications:
Velio Communications is a provider of silicon devices that solve the intra-system communications challenges of optical carrier equipment. For more information, visit www.velio.com.
About Altamar Networks:
Altamar Networks designs, develops and markets communications equipment for the core optical network. For more information, visit www.altamar.com.