10-Gbit Ethernet parts readied, 100G in wings

San Jose, Calif. — A new generation of optical and copper components for 10-Gbit Ethernet is about to hit the market, promising vastly lower costs that could rev up demand for fast networks inside the data center. The parts emerge just as networking companies are laying the groundwork for a 100-Gbit Ethernet standard.

"It's show time. We have to stop showing PowerPoint slides and start delivering products to customers," said Mike McConnell, co-founder and director of strategic marketing at KeyEye Communications Inc. (Sacramento, Calif.). He tipped plans to sample early in 2006 copper transceivers for taking 10-Gbit Ethernet across 30 meters of Category 6 copper cabling.

Startup Solarflare Communications Inc. (Irvine, Calif.) will not be far behind, with transceivers expected before June that will carry 10-Gbit Ethernet up to 100 meters over CAT6 wiring.

"When users want structured cabling, it has to be 100 meters," said George Zimmerman, chief technology officer and founder of Solarflare.

Startup Teranetics (Santa Clara, Calif.) is also expected to ship copper transceivers based around the emerging 10GBase-T standard in the first half of next year. Established players Broadcom and Marvell are expected to follow with parts in the second half of 2006.

Another startup, Luxtera Inc. (Carlsbad, Calif.), hopes to trump the copper parts with a novel design using silicon optics to route 10-Gbit Ethernet over up to 2,000 meters of single-mode fiber at the same costs — and significantly lower power and latency — than the copper components. "We think 10 Gbit will be the tipping point between copper and optical media," said vice president of technology Cary Gunn.

Even the chairman of the IEEE 802.3an group that is setting the 10GBase-T standard agreed that the outlook for copper links faster than 10 Gbits is dim. The group expects to finish the 10GBase-T copper standard by July.

Meanwhile, OEMs including Cisco Systems and Force 10 have come to an informal consensus about starting work on a 100-Gbit Ethernet standard in 2006, leapfrogging what some had expected would be a move to 40 Gbits. "We just like to think in Base 10," joked Brad Booth, a strategic-marketing manager for Intel Corp. who chairs the 802.3an group.

"Most people believe we need to kick off [a 100-Gbit standard effort] next year. We need to get the optics people on board," Booth added.

"It's not too early to start talking about possible standards, but it's too early to pick specific technologies," said Bill Woodruff, vice president of marketing for new 10-Gbit startup Aquantia Corp. Many physical-layer standards will continue to be based on fiber by necessity, he said, but proponents of possible 100-Gbit copper solutions should not be excluded from discussions by preconceived notions of what is possible.

In the meantime, 10-Gbit copper approaches will battle in the market over trade-offs in distance, power consumption and latency.

KeyEye's single-chip KX1001 will consume less than 3.7 watts and provide a latency of less than 150 nanoseconds. However, it will reach only 30 meters over CAT6 wiring, said McConnell. The part, available in a 14-mm2 package requiring a heat sink and a 19-mm2 package without a heat sink, will sample in November and be in production early next year.

The company will offer a similar part for 15-meter stretches of Infiniband CX4 cabling. "We're down to a single piece of silicon for a 10-Gbit transceiver, and it's hard to compete with that," said McConnell, adding that 30 meters will cover 75 percent of the data center's needs.