EZchip packs 100 ARM cores into one networking chip

The Tile-Mx100. Source: EZchip

• The industry's first detailed chip featuring 100, 64-bit ARM cores
• The Tile-Mx devices will perform control plane processing and data plane processing
• The 100-core chip will have 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports and support 200 Gigabit duplex traffic 

EZchip has detailed the industry's first 100-core processor. Dubbed the Tile-Mx100, the processor will be the most powerful of a family of devices aimed at such applications as software-defined networking (SDN), network function virtualisation (NFV), load-balancing and security. Other uses include video processing and application recognition, to identify applications riding over a carrier's network.

Click to read more ...

Optical transceiver market to grow 50 percent by 2017

• The optical transceiver market will grow to US $5.1bn in 2017
• The fierce price declines of 2012 will lessen during the forecast period
• Stronger traffic growth could have a significant positive effect on transceiver market growth

"The price declines in 2012 were brutal but they will not happen again [during the forecast period]"

Vladimir Kozlov, LightCounting

Click to read more ...

Altera optical FPGA in 100 Gigabit Ethernet traffic demo

Altera is demonstrating its optical FPGA at OFC/NFOEC, being held in Los Angeles this week. The FPGA, coupled to parallel optical interfaces, is being used to send and receive 100 Gigabit Ethernet packets of various sizes. 

The technology demonstrator comprises an Altera Stratix IV FPGA with 28, 11.3Gbps electrical transceivers coupled to two Avago Technologies' MicroPod optical modules. 

"FPGAs are now being used for full system level solutions"

Kevin Cackovic, Altera

Click to read more ...

Next-gen 100 Gigabit short reach optics starts to take shape

The latest options for 100 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) interfaces are beginning to take shape following a meeting of the IEEE 802.3 Next Generation 100Gb/s Optical Ethernet Study Group.  

Click to read more ...

Optical transceivers: Pouring a quart into a pint pot

Transceiver feature - 3rd and final part

Optical equipment and transceiver makers have much in common.  Both must contend with the challenge of yearly network traffic growth and both are addressing the issue similarly: using faster interfaces, reducing power consumption and making designs more compact and flexible.  

Yet if equipment makers and transceiver vendors share common technical goals, the market challenges they face differ. For optical transceiver vendors, the challenges are particularly complex.

LightCounting's global optical transceiver sales forecast. In 2009 the market was $2.10bn and will rise to $3.42bn in 2013

Click to read more ...