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Broadcom Lights Up the Cloud With Industry's First Complete Silicon Solution for the Network Core
New XGS Core(TM) Fabric Architecture Delivers the Economics of Standard Silicon to High Performance Networking Equipment
IRVINE, Calif., May 19 /-- Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced its new XGS Core(TM) fabric architecture - a scalable, high performance switch fabric that enables a new class of low power, high density, highly reliable Ethernet switches for data center, enterprise and service provider networks. The XGS Core fabric architecture connects seamlessly with Broadcom's market-leading StrataXGS(R) switch silicon and software, enabling networking OEMs to bring a new generation of high performance modular Ethernet platforms to market with substantially lower development costs and significantly faster time-to-revenue. With this introduction, Broadcom becomes the first semiconductor provider to address the requirements of these high-end platforms with a complete end-to-end standard silicon solution.
The traffic in today's data center, enterprise and service provider networks is growing at an extraordinary rate. Cloud computing, virtualized networks and Internet video are no longer concepts, but 'must-haves.' To deliver the performance demanded by high bandwidth 'always on' networks, modular Ethernet switches must support complex, scalable protocols, deliver extremely high throughput, and provide deep buffering to avoid packet loss. Until now, networking OEMs were forced to piece together combinations of custom application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), expensive field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and/or disparate components from niche suppliers to develop high-end modular systems. However, this approach results in high development costs, lengthy time-to-market, and a product that is often not optimized for cost, power or performance.
To address this industry concern, Broadcom announces its XGS Core fabric architecture that adds a high performance fabric solution to the widely deployed StrataXGS switch product portfolio. The Broadcom(R) XGS Core fabric solution consists of three new product series: a high performance traffic manager and fabric interface (BCM88200 series), a scalable switch fabric (BCM88100 series) and a high density buffer manager (BCM56900 series). This new fabric architecture removes the burdens associated with custom ASICs, FPGAs and cumbersome third party components by providing an end-to-end silicon and software solution. Network system vendors can now use a standard silicon solution to build low power, high density modular Ethernet switches that can scale up to 1 Terabit per line card and support up to 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) speeds.
"As we have done previously in low and mid-range systems, our unmatched integration and execution will drive 'Ethernet economics' into high-end networking equipment," said Martin Lund, Vice President & General Manager of Broadcom's Network Switching Business Unit. "The XGS Core fabric architecture expands and further strengthens our leading StrataXGS product portfolio, allowing us to extend our leadership in Ethernet switch solutions deeper into the network."
"Broadcom is the leading supplier of Ethernet switching products with a track record for achieving 'industry firsts,'" said Linley Gwennap, Principal Analyst, The Linley Group. "I expect Broadcom to use its leadership position with the StrataXGS product line as the foundation to establish the XGS Core fabric as the leading switch fabric for high performance chassis."
BCM88200 Series - Non-blocking Fabric Interface and Traffic Manager
Built upon a proven architecture, the Broadcom BCM88200 series of non-blocking, fabric interface and traffic manager devices support up to 80 Gigabits per second (Gbps) of full duplex bandwidth per device to enable the next generation of high density, wire speed 10 GbE and 40 GbE line cards in modular systems. The BCM88200 series:
-- Provides deep packet buffering using standard, low cost DDR3 DRAM memory for a substantial cost savings over specialized memories traditionally used for packet buffering;
-- Delivers a highly integrated solution, eliminating the need for costly external components, therefore, lowering overall system cost and power, and increasing line card densities; and
-- Integrates Broadcom's proven serializer/deserialzer (SerDes) technology for fabric connectivity that runs up to 6.56 Gbps per link, simplifying backplane designs for higher density and lower power systems.
BCM88100 Series - Scalable Switch Fabric
The Broadcom BCM88100 series of scalable switch fabric devices support an industry leading 1.2 Terabits per second (Tbps) bandwidth per device enabling a non-blocking, Virtual Output Queued (VOQ) fabric that can scale to over 20 Tbps of overall fabric capacity. Using an advanced global scheduling architecture, the BCM88100 series delivers high fabric efficiency, guaranteed latency and deterministic Quality of Service (QoS) enabling a network architecture for virtualized data center, enterprise and service provider designs. Additionally, the BCM88100 series:
-- Integrates built-in scheduling support for 40 GbE and 100 GbE flows to future proof next generation chassis designs;
-- Provides a bufferless crossbar fabric that dissipates substantially less power than traditional buffered crossbars; and
-- Supports hardware-based fault detection and failover that is more than one thousand times faster than traditional approaches.
BCM56900 Series - High Density, Deep Buffer Manager
The Broadcom BCM56900 series of deep buffer managers support up to 80 Gbps of full duplex bandwidth and connect seamlessly within existing StrataXGS stackable and chassis architectures. With eight high speed HiGig(TM) interfaces and low cost, external DRAM for deep buffering, the BCM56900 series integrates easily within StrataXGS fabric or stackable designs. This allows Broadcom customers with existing StrataXGS designs to quickly drop-in the BCM56900 series of products to add deep buffering in a very dense form factor to improve traffic performance during periods of heavy congestion.
Virtual Chassis Reference System
The XGS Core fabric architecture provides a unique and flexible virtual reference platform enabling customers to develop a 'virtual' chassis identical to the unique configurations of their actual system. The 'virtual' chassis architecture scales to 10 Tbps of fabric capacity, and by providing early access to hardware, substantially reduces a customer's development schedule. The reference systems include software, schematics, layout files and related documentation.
Availability and Pricing
The Broadcom BCM88100 switch fabric series is in production. The BCM88200 series of fabric interface and traffic managers and the BCM56900 series of buffer managers are now sampling. Pricing is available upon request.
The XGS Core fabric architecture is fully supported by Broadcom's widely adopted software application programming interface (API), which is common across the entire StrataXGS product line.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything(R).
Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2008 revenue of $4.66 billion, and holds over 3,300 U.S. and over 1,300 foreign patents, more than 7,500 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video, data and multimedia.
A FORTUNE 500(R) company, Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at www.broadcom.com.
