Microchip expands the choice of 1.6-terabit Ethernet PHYs
Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at 12:40PM Microchip Technology has enlarged its portfolio of 1.6-terabit physical layer (PHY) Ethernet chips targeting next-generation switch and router line cards.
Stephen Docking
In 2021, Microchip announced its PM6200 Meta-DX2L (‘L’ standing for light), its first 1.6-terabit Meta-DX2 PHY that uses 112-gigabit PAM-4 (4-level pulse-amplitude modulation) serialiser/ deserialisers (series).
Microchip has now added four more 1.6-terabit Ethernet PHYs dubbed Meta-DX2+.
Like the Meta-DX2L, the PHYs are implemented using a 6nm CMOS process while the ‘plus’ signifies added features.
The Meta-DX2L is used for such tasks as retiming, for a signal sent across the system’s backplane, for example, and has a ‘gearbox’ feature that translates between 28, 56 and 112-gigabit data rates.
With the Meta-DX2+ PHYs, Microchip has added port aggregation and security hardware.
