>IBM Microelectronics is a viable force.
There are many startups and new companies that have been supplying these products (or readying production) for well over a year. These include MMCN, BRCM, MAKR, C-Port, Agere, SiTera, VTSS (XaQti) and Power-X ...<
can you say petabit? check out this blurb on hyperchip (founder formerly of IBM Micro).
petabit = one thousand trillion bits/second(!)
btw, another beautiful post, BD. but i'd be bulldozing you if i claimed to comprehend every single nuance. <vbg>
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Electronic Buyer's News
September 13, 1999, Issue: 1177
Section: Semiconductors
Hyperchip reveals LAN/WAN petabit processor
Mark LaPedus
Silicon Valley - Aiming to reach new heights in the communications-IC market, Hyperchip Inc. this week will give a preview of its strategy to sell both chip- and system-level products designed to deliver what the company claims are petabit-processing speeds.
At the heart of its approach is Matrix, a switch-on-a-chip that incorporates 32 separate 32-bit software -- configurable processor cores from ARC Cores Ltd. -- lending weight to the argument that performance and flexibility are not mutually exclusive.
Hyperchip, a two-year-old company founded by Richard Norman, a former executive at IBM Microelectronics, is planning a November launch of the device, which is targeted at 2.5- and 10-Gbit/s LAN/WAN applications.
Initially implemented as an FPGA-based solution, Hyperchip will later offer the chip as an ASIC, said Norman, who is also chief executive of the Montreal-based company.
Hyperchip has a two-pronged strategy to sell Matrix. The company intends to incorporate the single-chip switch in its own system-level router products, but also plans to sell the chip in the merchant market, according to Norman.
"We will sell the chip to companies that are not competing against us in our systems business," he said.
Hyperchip's router is said to process data at petabit speeds, or a thousand trillion bits/second, but Norman declined to provide further details of the soon-to-be-announced product.
Matrix, meanwhile, moves Hyperchip into the small but competitive high-end switch-chip business. Its closet rival is Abrizio Inc., a little-known Mountain View, Calif., start-up that was acquired by PMC-Sierra Inc. last month for $400 million in stock. Abrizio has begun showing OEMs its first product, TT1, a switch-chip fabric designed for use in 2.5-and 10-Gbit/s bandwidth applications.
IBM Microelectronics and Lucent Microelectronics Inc.'s Microelectronics Group are also fielding high-end switch-fabric devices for use in ATM, SONET, and other LAN/WAN applications.
For ARC's part, the Matrix design demonstrates the viability of its shape-to-fit, reduced-instruction set processor for high-performance designs that are price- and power-conscious, said Jim Turley, vice president of marketing for London-based ARC.
Hyperchip's Matrix will be housed in a 1,849-pin BGA. Pricing was not disclosed. |
