Interoperability of the Broadcom(R) BCM8706 Platform With Industry Leading SFP+ Modules Builds Industry Confidence, Promotes New Features and Functionality, and Helps to Drive Widespread Adoption of SFP+ Technology
The SFP+ specification is an ongoing 10Gbps (Gigabit per second) standard developed by the Small Form Factor (SFF) committee with a goal of extending the original specification to leverage host-based electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) technology. Incorporated within a module, SFP+ converts the serial electrical signals to external serial optical or electrical signals enabling the technology to be used in SFP+ line card applications. Prior to SFP+, the module implementation was based on much larger form factors, such as X2 and XENPAK, and when compared to these modules, SFP+ increases port density by more than 300%. Additionally, SFP+ supports applications including OC192/STM-64, 10G Fibre Channel, G.709 and 10GbE. The SFF committee, of which Broadcom is an active and founding member, brings together leading networking system, server, optical module, semiconductor and connector companies from both the telecommunications and data communications markets.
"Broadcom changed the industry a few years back by being the first company to ship copper PHYs in high volume production based entirely on DSP technology that consistently performed and soon replaced the established analog PHYs in the market," said Dr. Ali Ghiasi, Senior Principal Scientist for Broadcom Corporation and SFF-8431 Technical Editor. "Similarly, the BCM8706 with DSP equalizer technology, along with lower cost and power-efficient SFP+ modules, will enable mass deployment of trustworthy 10GbE designs."
Introduced in December 2006, the new BCM8706 became the industry's first all DSP-based 10GbE serial transceiver enabling IT professionals to preserve their existing multi-mode and single-mode fiber infrastructures by providing an upgrade path from 1 Gigabit Ethernet (1GbE) to 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Based on five generations of field proven 10GbE serial PHY technology, this unique high-speed DSP provides significant performance, manufacturing and reliability advantages over competing analog solutions that will help drive its growth in the 10GbE market. Utilizing the new BCM8706 DSP-based 10GbE PHY, enterprise data centers can now achieve higher bandwidth and performance, while maintaining significant savings in cost, resources and manpower when upgrading to 10GbE links.
"As 10GbE becomes more cost effective, SFP+ will become the interconnection of choice especially for highly computational, data-intensive applications where cost effective, high-speed connectivity becomes a critical requirement," said Dan Dove, Principal Engineer for ProCurve Networking by HP.
"Picolight's LRM, SR limiting and SR linear modules successfully interoperated with Broadcom's BCM8706 transceiver," said Vidya Sharma, Vice President of Marketing for Picolight. "The combination of our LRM module and the BCM8706 resulted in significantly better sensitivity as specified by the IEEE standards for LRM stressors."
"Eudyna's LRM ROSA module was tested with Broadcom's BCM8706 PHY and passed all three IEEE LRM stressor tests utilizing SFP+ module and host compliance boards developed by Broadcom," said Hao Feng, Manager of Lightwave Marketing for Eudyna. "With its proven track record in 10GbE serial PHY technology, coupled with its involvement in the SFP+ MSA Group, Broadcom is one of the leading development partners that can help drive SFP+ to widespread adoption."
"We are very pleased that the tests involving Sumitomo Electric/ExceLight's SPP5101LM SFP+ LRM module and Broadcom's BCM8706 exceeded the IEEE SFP+ channel specification for maximum and minimum loss, passing the sensitivity margin for all three LRM IEEE stressors," said Eddie Tsumura, Vice President of Marketing for Sumitomo Electric/ExceLight. "With successful 10GbE developments and digital signal processing technology, the new BCM8706 transceiver provides optimal performance benefits that will help promote SFP+ to the industry."
Technical Information
The Broadcom BCM8706 10GbE (SFP+ to XAUI) transceiver follows five generations of field proven 10GbE serial PHY technology for SFP+ line card applications and inside X2 optical modules. When the BCM8706 performs signal detection using Broadcom's advanced DSP equalizer technology, it provides a significant performance advantage when compared to analog solutions. The 10GbE serial transceiver also provides optimal performance over 300 meters of multi-mode fiber that exceeds the IEEE specified link distance of 220 meters. An on-chip micro-controller provides additional flexibility to maintain optimal performance in even the most challenging operating conditions.
In support of the new SFP+ optical module standard, the BCM8706 product family incorporates multi-tap transmit pre-emphasis to compensate for FR-4 board material loss in line card applications. Using existing 1GbE SFP modules, the BCM8706 product family provides a single PHY solution that is capable of interfacing to both new and legacy Ethernet interfaces from a single PCB design.
Broadcom's all DSP-based 10GbE PHY provides the highest level of production quality that can also be easily integrated in complex ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits), and together with Ethernet switch and controller products, provides a complete end-to-end solution that guarantees network design interoperability.
Availability and Pricing
The BCM8706 serial 10GbE transceiver is a low power, 90nm device that is sampling to early access customers. It is available in a 13mm x 13mm, PBGA, RoHS-compliant package and is compliant to all serial 10GbE interfaces including 10GBASE-SR, 10GBASE-LRM, 10GBASE-LR and 10GBASE-ER. Volume production is scheduled for the second quarter of 2007. Pricing is available upon request.
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 2006 revenue of $3.67 billion, and holds over 2,000 U.S. and 800 foreign patents, more than 6,000 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.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward- looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with the BCM8706 serial 10 Gigabit Ethernet transceiver products include, but are not limited to, general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for enterprise networking applications; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our existing products and services or demand for new products requested by our customers; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a cost- effective and timely manner; our ability to retain, recruit and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the positions and numbers, with the experience and capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry, assembly and test capacity and raw materials; fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party semiconductor foundries and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly facilities; the quality of our products and any remediation costs; the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations, particularly in light of recent events; the effects of natural disasters, public health emergencies, international conflicts and other events beyond our control; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; and other factors.
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.
Broadcom(R), the pulse logo, Connecting everything(R), and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Scott Harlin
Public Relations Manager
949-926-5226
Email Contact
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew Vice President, Corporate Communications
949-926-5663
Email Contact
Broadcom Technical Contact
Michael Furlong
Senior Product Line Manager
949-926-6538
Email Contact
Web site: http://www.broadcom.com/