24 November 2003 Ottawa, Canada and San Jose, CA Lightwave - Quake Technologies today announced the availability of QT2044, the first dual-mode transceiver compatible with the IEEE 802.3 10GBASE-LX4 and 10GBASE-CX4 standard. The QT2044 allows 10-Gbit/sec transmission over legacy multimode fiber while simultaneously doubling the reach of copper cabling within a data center.
With the proliferation of 1 Gbit/sec to the desktop, inexpensive 10-Gbit/sec short reach links are becoming increasingly vital within the data center and the corporate backbone. The most cost-effective way to upgrade the network bandwidth capacity to 10 Gbits/sec within the data center is to utilize copper. For longer links within the corporate backbone, fiber must be used. Over 90% of the already installed fiber in building backbones is legacy MMF that was originally designed to carry data as slow as 100 Mbits/sec.
"Increasing bandwidth to Gigabit Ethernet on the client side, combined with storage doubling every year is setting the stage for data bottlenecks within the data center," said Jag Bolaria, senior analyst with The Linley Group. "Although 10GE can alleviate the problem, it has to be cost effective. A key factor for managing the upgrade cost to 10GE is to use existing MMF links."
The QT2044 implements short reach 10-Gbit/sec connections, such as stackable switch interconnects, server clustering and data aggregation within a data center. While the 10GBASE-CX4 standard allows the use of up to 15 m of copper cabling for these links, the QT2044 goes a step further by extending these connections to 30 m, providing greater flexibility within the data center.
In addition, the QT2044 addresses the backplane market as a serial link re-timer to improve signal integrity, reduce bit error rate and increase the length of existing serial backplanes. With its built-in proprietary equalization, the QT2044 can drive over 40 inches of standard FR4 backplane.
The QT2044 can be used to send traffic over both MMF and copper links. The programmable feature set optimizes the performance of the transceiver in both applications. The QT2044's small footprint, low power and high integration make the chip ideal for use in XENPAK, XPAK, X2 modules, I/O line cards, stacking I/Os and backplane interconnects.
"Designing a compliant transceiver for 10 Gigabit Ethernet is a real challenge," said Daniel Trépanier, president and chief executive officer of Quake Technologies. "Quake has been shipping 10-Gbit/sec PHYs longer than anybody else. We have incorporated our deep understanding of the standards' subtle requirements into the QT2044 to allow our customers migrate to these new short reach applications very quickly."
The QT2044 integrates four parallel 3.125 to 3.1875 Gbit/sec transmit and receive lanes into a single chip. Each lane includes receiver equalization, advanced clock and data recovery, performance monitoring and XAUI lane to lane de-skew functionality. To provide easy access to the control and status of both the chip and the module, the QT2044 includes a XENPAK/XPAK/X2 multi-source agreement compliant EEPROM interface and register set. Fully configurable link alarm system interrupt provides critical module information to the host. The integrated limiting amplifier on the network side eliminates the need for an external amplifier in the 10GBASE-LX4 applications. The glueless digital optical monitoring (DOM) interface provides the up-to-date operating condition of the electro-optical interface.
To ensure the integrity of the transmission and reduce bit errors, good performance of the transceiver IC is vital. The high performance of the QT2044, together with an array of adjustable link parameters, such as programmable pre-emphasis and receive equalization, provide robust link performance and help compensate for the channel impairments.
In order to aid with the link debug and management, a comprehensive set of built-in test features is included in the part. These features not only allow the system designer to easily verify the link integrity, but also enable quick evaluation without the need for additional test equipment.
The QT2044 comes in a 15x15-mm package. It is available now. A complete evaluation kit and reference design are available upon request.