JUNE 19, 2007 -- Key network technology providers have formed an alliance to accelerate the adoption and ongoing development of a new era of next-generation networking platforms. The "Road to 100G" Alliance has been founded by market leaders in key networking component segments critical to delivering standards-compliant solutions that address ultrahigh-bandwidth applications and system configurations.
The goal of the alliance is to provide a framework that encourages development of comprehensive solutions that are optimized for high-density communications applications. The alliance plans to provide ongoing education, application support, and common reference design data to accelerate the deployment of high-performance enterprise, metro, carrier, and long-haul network technologies. The group also plans to sponsor programs, events, and communications relating to the validation of these networking platforms.
The founding members of the alliance are Bay Microsystems, Inc.; Enigma Semiconductor; IDT (Integrated Device Technology, Inc.); IP Infusion (an ACCESS Company); and Lattice Semiconductor. The member companies have broad expertise in fields such as network processing, search acceleration, traffic management, high-density backplane switching, configurable logic, search memories, intelligent network software, and high-speed network I/O.
"The industry is experiencing unprecedented demand for bandwidth, driven primarily by the emergence of new IP-based consumer services," says Bill Weisinger, chairman. "The ecosystem created by the Road to 100G Alliance will facilitate and accelerate the release of new platforms that support these new services. We welcome new members in all areas, including component, software, equipment, and service providers, in order to expand the reach of this developing ecosystem."
Products from the alliance members are capable of providing up to 40-Gbit/sec line rates, scaling to 100 Gbits/sec over time. The alliance is focused on fostering cooperation between technology suppliers to provide comprehensive products that enable network equipment OEMs to focus their internal development resources toward system-differentiating functionality. It is the immediate goal of the alliance to expand its membership to include representatives from network equipment and service provider groups.
"The design and development of high-bandwidth networking solutions that efficiently transport a broad range of media types creates many new challenges," explains Simon Stanley, founder and principal consultant, Earlswood Marketing Ltd. "The creation of an alliance that promises to develop an ecosystem to address these challenges from a system perspective may be just the thing the industry needs to accelerate the build-out of a new infrastructure."