Molex and AMCC Partner at electronica 2008 to Demonstrate 10 Gbps 10GBASE-KR Data Transmission


LISLE, Ill. - November 05, 2008 - Molex Incorporated (NASDAQ: MOLX and MOLXA) and Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) are partnering at electronica 2008 (Hall B4 / Stand 336) to demonstrate a data transmission signal at 10.3 Gbps over one meter of copper backplane traces. The signal will be transmitted from an AMCC QT2225 dual 10GBASE-KR PHY IC and sent across the 1m copper channel in a Molex GbX I-Trac(TM) backplane.

The result is a complete end-to-end 10 Gbps solution (server-to-backplane-to-server) with streaming video as the high-bandwidth application. This marks one of the first technological partnerships to carry out a simulation relevant to the emerging IEEE 802.3ap 10-gigabit Ethernet standard.

"Molex played an active role in the development of the10GBASE-KR backplane Ethernet standard," said Ryan Price, global backplane product manager, Molex Incorporated. "Molex and AMCC were the first in the industry to demonstrate the KR evaluation. "As the industry broadens its adoption of multi-GB systems, our partnership demonstrates real-world channel measurements over various PCB materials and layouts, continuing into the next generation of high-speed connectors and PHY products."

The Molex GbX I-Trac system offers superior impedance control, lower cross-talk and higher overall bandwidth. With its open pin-field design, the system gives engineers the flexibility to assign high-speed differential pairs, low-speed signals, power and ground contacts anywhere within the pin-field.

The QT2225 is a low power dual port XAUI-to-10GBASE-KR PHY IC designed for transmission of serial 10 Gbps Ethernet traffic over one meter of PCB/backplane. It includes integrated IEEE 802.3ap FEC with bypass and can operate in both 10GBASE-KR and 1000BASE-KX modes.

According to Gilles Garcia, director of marketing, AMCC, "We can offer a capacity increase of 4-10 channels per port to customers moving to 10 Gbps Ethernet for backplane connectivity. The maturity of this technology and applications will accelerate the adoption in enterprise data centers for server-to-server communication and blade server platforms."

Visitors to the Molex stand (Hall B4 / Stand 336) at electronica 2008 will have the opportunity to view this demonstration first hand as well as speak to key product engineers about their project needs. For more information on the Molex GbX I-Trac Backplane Connector System, please visit: www.molex.com/product/itrac.html or email: i-trac@molex.com

About Molex Incorporated

Molex Incorporated is a 70-year-old global manufacturer of electronic, electrical and fibre optic interconnection systems. Based in Lisle, Illinois, USA, the company operates 45 manufacturing locations in 17 countries. The Molex website is www.molex.com.

About Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC)

AMCC is a global leader in energy efficient sustainable solutions to process, transport, and store information for the next generation of Internet data center and carrier central office equipment. AMCC is a leader in high-speed signal processing, IP and Ethernet packet processing, and storage controllers and processors. AMCC's patented innovations in high-speed mixed signal, Forward Error Correction, RAID, and packet processing provide high value solutions. AMCC's corporate headquarters are located in Sunnyvale, California. Sales and engineering offices are located throughout the world. For further information regarding AMCC, please visit our web site at www.amcc.com.

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