Thanks for the links, Dale. Haven't had a chance to review them just yet. Here's today's VTSS press release:
Vitesse Broadens Fibre Channel Port Bypass Circuit Family; Includes Industry's First Stand-Alone Retimer and Provides Additional Design Flexibility
CAMARILLO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 17, 2000--Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (Nasdaq:VTSS) today introduced three additional Port Bypass Circuits (PBCs), including the VSC7127 and VSC7129, the industry's first stand-alone retimers.
All three devices, the VSC7124, VSC7127, and VSC7129 augment Vitesse's family of Fibre Channel offerings for Storage Area Network (SAN) equipment designers and integrate all digital Repeaters/Retimers. The VSC7124, VSC7127, and VSC7129 ICs provide greater design flexibility than alternate devices for manufacturers of 1.0625Gb/s JBODs and disk arrays. Designers can now integrate more ports and disk drives and maintain consistently high signal quality while utilizing fewer components.
As members of Vitesse's Velocity(TM) family of CMOS ICs, the VSC7124, VSC7127, and VSC7129 PBCs steer serial Fibre Channel signals to disk drives, perform on-chip transmit termination, and offer low-power 3.3V operation. The VSC7124 contains five integrated PBCs whereas the VSC7127 and VSC7129 both offer six PBCs, as well as a FibreTimer(TM) Clock Recovery Unit (CRU) and Analog/Digital Signal Detect Unit (SDU).
To give OEMs alternate vendor sources, the VSC7124, VSC7127 and VSC7129 are compatible with the Agilent HDMP-0450, HDMP-0451, and HDMP-0452, respectively, while offering the designer additional flexibility in selecting between either a repeater or a retimer.
A FibreTimer CRU operates in either repeater or retimer modes. In repeater mode, recovered data is retransmitted to a recovered clock, allowing for improved jitter attenuation and low latency. In retimer mode, recovered data is re-transmitted synchronously to a local reference clock with no jitter transfer, ensuring compliance to Fibre Channel signal quality specifications.
Repeaters may transfer benign low-frequency jitter but have low latency, whereas retimers eliminate jitter transfer but have high latency due to the add/drop FIFO function. Likewise, the SDU and on-chip transmit termination eliminate external components on the transmit side, thus improving signal quality and reducing overall board requirements and system costs.
For increased design flexibility, the PBCs of the VSC7124, VSC7127 and VSC7129 can be cascaded together, allowing the designers to match the number of PBCs to the Fibre Channel disk drives in the enclosure, while providing superior signal quality. If the number of disk drives exceeds twelve, Vitesse's VSC7148, with its sixteen PBCs and four FibreTimers, can be utilized.
"This family of PBCs for JBOD designs provides pin-compatible, second source products that offer significant improvements to existing products. The ability to incorporate an all-digital retimer into a current socket greatly enhances signal quality over other analog repeaters," stated Tom Brokaw, senior product marketing manager in the SAN Products Group. "The VSC7127 and VSC7129 are the only stand-alone retimers and continue to win universal acceptance among our key customers," concluded Brokaw.
The VSC7124, VSC7127, and VSC7129 are fully compliant with Fibre Channel NCITS X3T11 specifications and are packaged in an industry standard, low-cost 44 pin 10mm PQFP providing drop-in ability for existing designs. Sample and production quantities are available now and are priced below $9 in 5000-piece volumes.
Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation is the leading designer and supplier of semiconductors for the communication equipment manufacturers of next-generation DWDM and optical networking, as well as storage area networking ICs and enclosure management products that monitor and communicate critical reliability and availability information.
Vitesse has been a primary developer of Fibre Channel technology and a contributor to the NCITS X3T11 Fibre Channel committee, and the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA). The company's products address the product needs of Core, Access and Enterprise network equipment manufacturers who demand a combination of high-speed, high-complexity and low-power dissipation.
Vitesse has headquarters in Camarillo, Calif., and manufactures volume ICs at its two fabrication facilities in Camarillo and Colorado Springs. Company/product information can be found on the Web at www.vitesse.com.
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CONTACT:
Vitesse Semiconductor
Patricia Ito, 805/388-3700
ito@vitesse.com
or
CMC Public Relations
Caroline Melnicoff, 650/324-8819
cmp1@earthlink.net |
