Compact 10GbE Switch promotes green data centers.
Press Release Summary:
Produced in 65 nm process, StrataXGS® BCM56820 series provides 240 Gb of multi-layer switching capacity on single chip. Each 24-port, 10GbE switch supports scalability necessary for Web 2.0 support, security required for enterprise applications, as well as bandwidth and QoS needed to deliver multimedia content. Featuring service aware flow control (SAFC) technology, switches ensure delivery of sensitive network traffic while extending priority access to time-critical applications.
Original Press Release:
Broadcom Accelerates Next Generation 'Green' Data Centers with 'Coolest' 10GbE Switch
Broadcom Solidifies Leadership in End-to-End 10GbE Data Center Solutions with Single-Chip, 24-port Switch Produced in 65nm Process Technology
IRVINE, Calif., Nov 08, 2007 -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced a new 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) switch that provides 240 Gigabits of multi-layer switching capacity on a single chip. The new Broadcom® chip uses 65 nanometer (nm) process technology to achieve the industry's lowest power consumption, ultimately enabling 'green' data centers. Data centers host all Web content and critical business assets and, as such, 10GbE connectivity is crucial in meeting capacity requirements. Broadcom's new 10GbE switch provides data centers with greater density at a lower power. This enables cooler operations that better support a fluctuating volume of users due to the rich multimedia content associated with Web 2.0, online video-on-demand, social networking and interactive gaming. By upgrading its data center with Broadcom's 65nm 10GbE switches, a single 40,000 square foot data center could save enough power annually to light the Las Vegas strip for 12 hours(1).
Broadcom was the first to introduce 10GbE switching silicon in 2002 and continues to be the only chip company in the world that can provide the major networking components (switches, physical layer devices, controllers and serializers/deserializers) needed to build a complete 10GbE-based data center. Data center traffic can now easily migrate from GbE to 10GbE, with storage, clustering, voice, video and data converged onto a single 10GbE unified network fabric. This converged environment facilitates network virtualization eliminating the need for deploying and maintaining separate, disparate fabrics such as Fibre Channel, InfiniBand® and others. As a result, Broadcom is uniquely positioned to benefit from the significant growth taking place in the data center market.
People today are accessing diverse types of content at a greater rate than ever before. Regardless of the activity, the content from photos and video to software applications and online gaming primarily resides in the data center and is accessed remotely. 10GbE is crucial to meet the bandwidth requirements since GbE can no longer handle the increased network traffic. Data center expansion and scalability is also necessary to support popular online activities such as social networking and streaming video. These activities, like the release of a hot new music video or an online movie, can cause a spontaneous influx of millions of simultaneous users creating situations where the data center must scale quickly to support an immediate demand for content.
In the enterprise, the data center houses the company's most important assets -- its intellectual property (IP), customer databases and financial information. Access to this data, and other software services such as customer relationship management (CRM), must be reliable, secure and available 24/7 to support a large worldwide workforce.
Announced today is the Broadcom BCM56820 10GbE multi-layer switch designed to enable growth in all segments of the data center market. The BCM56820 is the latest member of the StrataXGS® Ethernet switch family and supports the scalability necessary for Web 2.0 support, the reliability and security required for enterprise applications, as well as the bandwidth and quality of service (QoS) needed to deliver rich multimedia content such as IPTV.
"A 10GbE infrastructure incorporating the latest technology to address reliability, accessibility, scalability and security is fundamental in next- generation data centers," said Martin Lund, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Network Switching line of business. "The introduction of our cool new 10GbE switch underscores our leadership in 10GbE silicon solutions and enables the deployment of 10GbE across the enterprise without a compromise in features."
"Data centers are expanding faster than ever before due to the large volume of content and applications they are now required to support," said Vikram Mehta, President and CEO of BLADE Network Technologies. "Market leading products like Broadcom's BCM56820 will help enable our strategy to deliver server I/O fabric convergence and network virtualization to the data center. We have partnered with Broadcom to launch a dozen data center switches with another three to launch within six months, which will further our leadership position in the market."
One key feature of the BCM56820 is Broadcom's service aware flow control (SAFC) technology, which enables data center Ethernet (DCE). In this converged 10 Gigabit Ethernet-based fabric, SAFC greatly improves performance in data centers by ensuring that there is no loss of data on the network. It guarantees reliable delivery of sensitive network traffic such as storage, while extending priority access to time-critical applications such as clustering and video.
Technical Information
Broadcom's StrataXGS BCM56820 series includes two new products: the BCM56820 and BCM56821. The series includes the following features:
Broadcom's unique multi-stage ContentAware(TM) engine supporting deep packet inspection and classification for traffic flow identification and policy application
Layer 2 (L2), VLAN switching and Layer 3 (L3) routing support including IPv6
Advanced QoS for converged networking applications including per- priority pause/priority flow control (PPP/PFC)
Improved Broadcom HiGig(TM) stacking technology for increased scalability
Non-blocking performance, switching more than 375 million packets per second
24-port and 20-port versions available. Each port can support Fast Ethernet (FE), GbE, 2.5GbE or 10GbE connectivity
The 65nm process is the most advanced lithographic node for manufacturing semiconductors in large volumes today. It provides significant benefits over 90nm and 130nm processes by enabling lower power consumption, smaller size, higher yields and higher levels of integration. With the depth and breadth of Broadcom's advanced portfolio of market-proven IP, the company is able to drive innovative new products to market and differentiate its solutions from the competition.
Availability and Pricing
The BCM56820, Broadcom's low power 10GbE chip, is currently shipping to early access customers. Pricing is available upon request.
The product features a mature, widely adopted software API, which is common across the entire product line and supported by multiple third-party software vendors, as well as Broadcom's FASTPATH® application layer software. Reference designs are also available to help speed time-to-market and include software, schematics, layout files and related documentation.
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®.
Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2006 revenue of $3.67 billion, and holds over 2,300 U.S. and 1,000 foreign patents, more than 7,100 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video and data.
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.
Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, the Connecting everything logo, FASTPATH®, StrataXGS®, ContentAware(TM), and HiGig(TM) are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. InfiniBand® is a trademark of System I/O, Inc. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
(1) Based on a 40,000 square foot data center with 32,000 servers running 24/7 at 11 watts per 10GbE port.
