Congrats to everyone... Again. Another great announcement and corresponding move today. We will see $100/sh by the end of the week.
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Broadcom Demonstrates World's First Gigabit Ethernet Chip for Existing Copper Cabling
May 11, 1999 04:50 PM
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 1999--
Breakthrough Gigabit Ethernet Transceiver Enables a 10X Performance Increase for Today's Corporate Networks
Broadcom Corporation BRCM , a leading developer of integrated circuits enabling broadband communications to the home and business, today demonstrated at NetWorld+Interop '99 the world's first Gigabit Ethernet transceiver chip for existing copper cabling.
A significant milestone for the networking industry, the Broadcom(R) BCM5400 will enable manufacturers for the first time to develop networking equipment that delivers data at gigabit speeds (1000 Megabits-per-second/Mbps) over Category 5 unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) copper wiring, which presently comprises over 80% of all enterprise network connections. Network users of equipment incorporating the BCM5400 will benefit by receiving a 10 times performance upgrade to their existing networks without having to re-wire their facilities with costly fiber or enhanced copper cable.
Broadcom has begun delivering initial samples of the chip to its Accelerated Development Partners (ADPs) and is working with them to incorporate the chip into new Ethernet switch and adapter products.
"Our Gigabit Ethernet transceiver represents a significant technology milestone in high-speed networking," said Dr. Henry T. Nicholas III, Broadcom's President and CEO. "Our engineers have broken new ground in the design, development and manufacturing of the BCM5400. Nearly all of the leading networking OEMs are now building Gigabit Ethernet systems using our device to support the cost-effective convergence of voice, video and data over the network backbone and to the desktop."
The BCM5400 1000BASE-T Transceiver is the world's first solution designed to comply with the proposed IEEE 802.3ab Gigabit Ethernet standard for Category 5 cabling. A key advantage of the BCM5400 is its advanced Digital Signal Processing (DSP) architecture, which is designed to exceed the line quality and distance requirements of the 802.3ab specification, even on the existing standard grade Category 5 cabling.
"The BCM5400 is the most complex communications transceiver chip ever developed," said Dr. Henry Samueli, Broadcom's Chief Technical Officer. "It achieves an unprecedented level of mixed-signal complexity and DSP computational throughput."
Before the advent of Broadcom's Gigabit Ethernet chip, gigabit data rates were only possible by using expensive fiber optic cable and optical transceiver technology. The BCM5400 utilizes existing Category 5 cabling without requiring a costly upgrade to fiber or enhanced copper cabling, which significantly reduces the cost and simplifies the upgrade to Gigabit speeds, thereby seeking to accelerate the deployment of 1000BASE-T in today's corporate networks and satisfy the insatiable demand for higher bandwidth.
According to the Dell' Oro Group, by the year 2001 over 70% of the Gigabit Ethernet connections will be based on copper, with the largest number of connections in servers and high-end desktops, where Dell' Oro believes copper outnumbers fiber by an order of magnitude of ten to one.
BCM5400 Transceiver Product Information
The BCM5400 integrates an IEEE 802.3ab 1000BASE-T physical layer (PHY) transceiver and an IEEE 802.3u 100BASE-TX PHY transceiver into a single monolithic CMOS chip. Manufacturers also have the option of easily and cost-effectively attaching the BCM5400 to Broadcom's existing BCM5201 transceiver to design standard-compliant, triple-speed 10/100/1000BASE-T equipment. This solution is capable of auto-negotiating to the highest possible speed. Common types of equipment that may utilize the BCM5400 include switches, adapter cards, uplink modules and motherboards found in servers and commercial desktop PCs. An industry-standard 10-bit interface enables the device to attach to any equipment already designed for Gigabit Ethernet over fiber optic cables without any additional changes. In addition, the BCM5400 is fully compliant with the IEEE 802.3z Gigabit Media Independent Interface (GMII) standard for Gigabit Ethernet, providing compatibility with all industry-standard Ethernet Media Access Controllers (MACs) and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs).
The BCM5400 is a complex transceiver that builds on Broadcom's leadership in Digital Signal Processing (DSP)-based communications architectures, incorporating Broadcom's field-proven, patent-pending Digi-(PHY)(TM) DSP technology, which ensures interoperability and robust performance over a wide range of cable lengths and operating conditions. This advanced DSP architecture delivers unprecedented performance of greater than 250 billion operations per second (GOPS). According to information found on TI's web site, a general-purpose DSP chip like the TMS320C6x from Texas Instruments can achieve a peak throughput of about 2 billion instructions per second. Broadcom used its advanced system architecture expertise, proprietary DSP compiler tools, and full-custom mixed signal and digital design methodologies to minimize the development schedule and cost of its Gigabit transceiver.
Broadcom's BCM5400 makes network equipment significantly simpler to install by automatically detecting and correcting the most common wiring problems, such as swapped pairs, pair skew, reversed polarity and MDI crossover. The chip also includes a host of advanced features, which increase its ability to operate efficiently over longer cable lengths. These features include digital adaptive equalizers, high-speed/high precision analog-to-digital converters, a very low jitter phase lock loop, precision line drivers, forward error correction circuitry, echo cancellers, cross-talk cancellers, baseline wander correction for "killer packet" protection, and other support circuitry to enable robust and reliable communication at Gigabit speeds over existing Category 5 cabling.
As a key contributor to the IEEE 802.3ab standard for Gigabit Ethernet over copper, Broadcom has been a driving force behind setting and refining the gigabit standards. Broadcom has also worked closely with cable manufacturers, magnetics vendors, test equipment makers and network equipment companies to develop a robust system-level solution that optimizes data transmission and overcomes many of the design challenges faced in meeting and exceeding the stringent IEEE 802.3ab standard. These partnerships are now enabling equipment manufacturers to accelerate the delivery of a complete system solution for copper Gigabit Ethernet deployment.
The chip is packaged in a 256-pin TBGA and is priced at $75 in sample quantities.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a leading developer of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable broadband digital data transmission to and throughout the home and within the business enterprise. Using proprietary technologies and advanced design methodologies, the Company has designed and developed integrated circuits for some of the most significant broadband communications markets, including the markets for cable set-top boxes, cable modems, high-speed networking products, direct broadcast satellite and terrestrial digital broadcast, and digital subscriber line (xDSL). Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and may be contacted at 949-450-8700 or at www.broadcom.com.
Broadcom(R), Digi-(PHY)(TM) and the pulse logo are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation.
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