Fulcrum and Solarflare Collaborate on Switch Design
5/24/07 – Fulcrum Microsystems, the Calabasas-based fabless semiconductor company, and Irvine-based Solarflare Communications have announced a collaboration on a new 10GBASE-T switch reference design that the companies say is the highest density, most cost-effective 10G Ethernet switch on the market today.
The companies made the announcement at the Interop show this week in Las Vegas, where they are conducting demonstrations of the switch.
Fulcrum and Solarflare say the new platform combines Solarflare’s 10Xpress 10GBASE-T physical layer technology with Fulcrum’s FocalPoint 24-port, low-latency Ethernet switch chip to create a 1U-high switch that features 20 10GBASE-T ports and four XFPs.
Fulcrum says its FocalPoint 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch chip family features the industry’s highest density and performance, lowest latency and greatest power efficiency for 10-Gigabit Ethernet switching.
Solarflare says its 10Xpress is the industry’s first standards-compliant 10GBASE-T PHY chip. 10Xpress enables 10-Gigabit connectivity via twisted pair copper—what the company says is a cost-effective alternative to expensive fiber infrastructures—while providing the familiar ease-of-use, which has helped copper fuel past Ethernet expansions.
Solarflare Communications – www.solarflare.com
Fulcrum Microsystems – www.fulcrummicro.com
