FEBRUARY 5, 2007 -- Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (search for Vitesse) today announced that its electronic dispersion compensation (search for EDC) technology has achieved the lead position within the 10GBASE-LRM market, capturing design wins with five of the world's top six X2 module suppliers, says the company.
Widespread deployment of 10GBASE-LRM X2 modules across the existing multimode fiber (MMF) plant will remove the present bottleneck that exists in the enterprise space, enabling the upgrade path from 1-Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and unleashing new, higher bandwidth voice, video, and data applications, says the company. Vitesse claims its EDC technology is enabling this deployment by providing unsurpassed compensation for time-varying multi-path modal dispersion encountered in legacy MMF.
The VSC8238 EDC/CDR allows 10GBASE-LRM module manufacturers to easily achieve 300-meter reach over MMF, rivaling the performance of existing, more costly 10GBASE-LX4 generation modules. The new IEEE-802.3aq, 10GBASE-LRM module standard calls for a minimum reach performance of 220 meters. The VSC8238 exceeds the IEEE standard performance level by 4 dB over all operating conditions, report Vitesse representatives.
Since first announcing this device in March 2006, VSC8238-based X2 modules have successfully passed interoperability tests conducted by the Ethernet Alliance in Monza, Italy, and manufacturers are now engaged in system level qualifications.
"The superior VSC8238 performance and Vitesse support allowed Opnext to quickly design, fabricate, and test our X2 LRM module," recalls Jon Anderson, director of engineering, Opnext, Pluggable Modules. "The module performed with margin to specifications and enabled us to meet our customer's aggressive qualification schedule," he says.
TheIX2 form factor is by far the dominant module for 10-GbE shipments today and provided the basis for much of the 150% 10-GbE module market growth from 2003 to 2005, according to Ovum-RHK. The mass deployment of 10-GbE links is being driven by the desktop and server connection upgrade from 100BASE-T to 1000BASE-T, now in process within enterprise networks. This is, in turn, driving bandwidth demand on the uplink from the switch closets to the server rooms and back into the network.
"Vitesse has captured the majority share of the emergingI10-GbE market, which is expected to grow to over one million ports in 2008," asserts Gary Paules, product marketing manager, Network Products Division, Vitesse. "The VSC8238 outperforms competitive EDC solutions and is enabling module manufacturers to exceed the IEEE comprehensive stressed receiver requirements," he notes.
Vitesse says it is working closely with customers to build on the success of this technology by adapting it to future generations of IC products for use within and external to optical modules. These products will address the requirements that stem from technology transitions in the industry, such as the deployment of SFP+ modules, as well as dispersion issues associated with the metro and long-haul SONET/SDH transmission links, says the company.
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