Editorial Contacts:
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|
Ron Cates
SolarFlare Communications, Inc. |
Kelly
Poffenberger or Carolyn Fromm Benjamin
| A Weber Shandwick Company |
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949-581-6830 ext. 2100 |
949-260-1300
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SolarFlare Communications Realizes
World’s First Transceiver
Delivering 10 Gbps Ethernet Traffic
Over Widely Deployed
Category 5e Copper Cable
Breakthrough
Promotes the
Development of the
10GBase-T Ethernet
Standard Currently Underway
IRVINE, Calif., March 22, 2004 – SolarFlare Communications Inc., a developer of high-performance semiconductor products for physical-layer connectivity, has created a demonstrable, complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-based transceiver that is capable of sustained 10 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) operation over industry-standard Category 5e (Cat5e) copper cable. Cat5e is the cable type most frequently used to interconnect computers, switches, and routers in Ethernet networks.
“Today’s 10Gbps Ethernet links are implemented with either
very expensive optical-fiber transceivers or with cumbersome, short-reach,
twinax coaxial cables,” said Ron Cates, SolarFlare’s vice president of
marketing. “The advent of a transceiver capable of operation over the installed
base of Cat5e cable defies industry experts who claimed it couldn’t be done and
promises to dramatically lower the costs of 10Gbps Ethernet deployment and
increase its utilization in enterprise computing networks and data
centers.”
SolarFlare’s transceiver uses industry-standard CMOS
fabrication technology and proprietary signal-processing algorithms that
improve data recovery and mitigate noise in copper wires so that they can
support higher data rates. The
transceiver is designed to operate over Cat5e, Cat6, or Cat7 cables with
lengths up to 100 meters.
“While
several companies have speculated about the possibility, and even showed
feasibility through simulations, I am incredibly proud to say the SolarFlare
team is the first to demonstrate 10Gbps operation over long distances of copper
cable with real
hardware,”
said Russell Stern, SolarFlare’s CEO.
“This achievement marks a major milestone and will significantly boost
the initiatives that SolarFlare and other Ethernet industry leaders are taking
in formulating an industry standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet transmission over
twisted-pair copper cable under the auspices of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 committee.”
“SolarFlare’s ability to implement 10Gbps-over-twisted-pair
cabling represents the fourth generation of Ethernet transceivers that have
historically catalyzed the adoption of a faster version of Ethernet by removing
the need to deploy expensive optical fiber infrastructure in enterprise
networks,” said Greg McAdoo, formerly with Cisco Systems and now a partner with
Sequoia Capital -- one of SolarFlare’s lead investors.
The SolarFlare 10Gbps Transceiver digital signal processor (DSP) is a mixed analog and digital single-chip device fabricated with 0.13-micron CMOS technology and housed in a 600-pin ball grid array (BGA) package. Designed in-house and containing in excess of four million logic gates, the transceiver was designed to enable high-volume production in a customer-owned tooling (COT) flow. The device is capable of direct interface to existing 10Gigabit Ethernet media access controllers (MACs) and uses a standard management data input/output (MDIO) control bus.
SolarFlare Communications is a developer of high-performance semiconductor solutions for system connectivity. SolarFlare’s communications architectures and algorithms improve data rates, costs, and distances and enable existing networks to migrate to next-generation speeds without replacing the physical infrastructure. The company’s products enable enterprises to migrate local area networks (LANs) to next-generation speeds without costly upgrades to the infrastructure. SolarFlare’s first products address the operation of Ethernet at 10Gbps over installed structured copper wiring (Cat 5e or better) in the enterprise.
SolarFlare is headquartered in Irvine, Calif. Additional company information is available at www.solarflare.com.
SolarFlare Communications™ is a trademark of SolarFlare Communications, Inc.
All other trademarks and company names are the property of their respective owners.
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