Date: 01/11/2010

10G EPON chipset from Gennum packs transceiver chip and TIA amplifier

Gennum Corp. has launched 10G EPON chipset combining a 10G transceiver chip with a low-power transimpedance amplifier (TIA).

"The industry's migration to the 10G PON standard brings a host of technical challenges, including the ability to handle the asynchronous and synchronous nature of the data streams at these high speeds," said Gary Beauchamp, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Optical Products at Gennum. "Our continued focus on complex, high-speed technologies has enabled Gennum to deliver a market-enabling 10G PON solution that not only meets, but exceeds the ITU and IEEE specifications. With both low-power and high-sensitivity performance, our 10 Gbps TIA and transceiver chip combine to provide the industry's first solution that can deliver the performance headroom customers require to ensure their equipment successfully manages the stress factors of a 10G EPON network."

Gennum's 10G EPON transceiver chip, comprised of a limiting amplifier, burst-mode laser driver and clock and data recovery (CDR), now combines with Gennum's 10G EPON.

"The EPON market remains strong in Asia, with a clear upgrade path to 10G," said Vladimir Kozlov, founder and CEO of market analyst firm Light Counting. "In the United States, while we see telcos firmly backing GPON, cable operators continue to show interest in EPON, with media companies such as Time Warner and Comcast participating in testing phases and evaluating 10G EPON. As a result, we expect 10 percent growth for EPON transceiver sales in 2010 and shipments reaching 10 million units by 2014."

Gennum has also released a 2x2 crosspoint switch that supports data rates of over 14 Gbps per port. The GX4002 crosspoint integrates a CDR (clock and data recovery), a single-chip solution that satisfies the high-speed signal integrity requirements of next-generation equipment used in data center, enterprise and telecommunications networks. The crosspoint is ideal for use as a redundancy switch, repeater or high-speed loop-back monitor.

The device provides the speed, bandwidth and signal integrity required to support network equipment based on standards like 10 Gbps SONET (OC-192); 10 Gbps Ethernet; 16 Gbps Fibre Channel; and Infiniband DDR (double data rate), QDR (quad data rate) and FDR (fourteen data rate).

In another announcement Gennum said it has selected TowerJazz's 0.18-micron SiGe BiCMOS (SBC18) process to manufacture its latest video crosspoint switch. These crosspoint switches combine video-specific features effective enough to handle next-generation video formats.