Xelerated intros HX300 family of NPUs and programmable Ethernet switches

JUNE 10, 2008 -- Xelerated (search for Xelerated), provider of Carrier Ethernet ASSP-based chipsets, today announced its next-generation HX300 family of high-performance network processors with integrated traffic management and fully-programmable Ethernet switches. The company says its NPUs bring new levels of integration and flexibility to the Carrier Ethernet market and enable mass deployment of advanced fiber access offerings while significantly reducing costs.

The HX300's multilayer programmable Ethernet switches represent a breakthrough in integration and design flexibility, say Xelerated representatives. This combination of switching and processing functionality enables the development of service-aware applications that readily adapt to changes in network conditions and optimize performance. 

The HX300 family offers the low cost and power efficiency of custom designed ASICs, while bringing the NPU advantages of reduced time-to-market and value differentiation through software. The Xelerated Dataflow Architecture is the only packet processing architecture in the industry that delivers wirespeed deterministic performance with programmability, says the company. It is the first and only NPU architecture that scales to 100 Gbits/sec full duplex. Based on the same Xelerated Dataflow Architecture employed in previous generation devices, the HX300 family provides a uniform management method and common programming environment across the range of fiber access and Carrier Ethernet products. This enables network equipment vendors to leverage their development expenses across core, metro, and access platforms. 

The advanced standards-based egress traffic management and the tight integration of the Xelerated Dataflow Architecture enables the HX300 family to support a QoS-aware distributed traffic management model for either chassis-based switching systems or meshed configurations. Triple-play services are enabled by a flexible queue allocation and programmable hierarchy that enforces per-flow, per-subscriber, per-class Service Level Agreements and bandwidth guarantees.

As carriers' complete initial deployments of fiber access based technologies like Active Ethernet, GPON, and EPON, they face operational and economic challenges to mass deployment of these networks, explain Xelerated representatives. Significant increases in backhaul bandwidth and escalating QoS requirements of IP communications and service availability are driving new requirements for aggregation platforms and the need for extending Carrier Ethernet services in the access network. The HX300 extends Carrier Ethernet into first mile applications for both residential and business access.

"Xelerated's new series of programmable Ethernet switching devices is well positioned to capture design wins in the emerging fiber access market," notes Bob Wheeler, senior analyst at the Linley Group. "Embedding the company's core dataflow processing technology in an Ethernet switch delivers unique flexibility at low cost, both of which are key for system vendors. Xelerated is poised for rapid growth based on its metro design wins, and the fiber access market represents a sizeable additional opportunity for the company," he adds.

The HX300 family includes three core series: HX310, HX320, and the HX330. The HX310 consists of programmable Ethernet Switches for fiber access aggregation switches, GPON/EPON linecards, and EADs. The HX320 Series is an NPU for CESR, service routers, legacy systems, 100-GbE, 40-GbE, and OC-768 applications. The HX330 is an NPU with integrated Traffic Manager for CESR, service routers, GPON/EPON linecards, and xDSL aggregation.

The HX300 family enables fixed-port, stackable, and chassis-based networking systems that can be configured in mesh, ring, star, dual star, and stackable topologies. The HX300 integrates 100-Gigabit, 40-Gigabit, 10-Gigabit, and 1-Gigabit Ethernet ports. The HX300 is binary software-compatible with custom and metro Ethernet applications (MEA) that have already been developed for Xelerated's X10 and X11 NPU families.

"With the introduction of the HX300 family of products, we are extending our technology platform with two innovative technologies-- programmable Ethernet switching and advanced traffic management--representing a breakthrough in integration, design flexibility, and application awareness," contends Thomas Axelsson, CEO of Xelerated. "The Xelerated team has put deep thought into each and every one of these products, and we are confident that the launch of the HX300 line will clearly state our position as a leader in the Carrier Ethernet market--as well as the emerging fiber access market."

The HX300 family will begin sampling in Q4 2008. All devices are available in leaded and lead-free packages with options to support Industry Grade Temperature.  

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