Swift Switching Processor Revs Up High-Speed Networks

Claiming to be ten times faster than existing Ethernet chips, the AL1032 10-Gigabit Ethernet switching processor allows LANs to be connected directly into the Internet via OC-192 optical links. The 785-pin thermal ball grid array (TBGA) device integrates on-chip a 10-Gbit port with twelve 1-Gbit Ethernet ports operating at full-duplex, wire speed for an aggregate bandwidth of 44 Gbps. Should all twelve 1-Gbit ports simultaneously try to access the 10-Gbit port, the chip's flow-control circuit will automatically throttle back on the inputs to maintain a steady 10-Gbit output. And the IC achieves wire-speed performance on all ports at any frame length up to 9 Kbytes.
In addition to the 44-Gbps switching performance, the AL1032 also integrates on-chip all of the necessary memory elements, including MAC address table, VLAN database, and all of the frame buffer memories in a built-in 1-Mbyte SRAM. Data coming into the AL1032's ports are immediately stored in a FIFO unit until the port manager can perform a serial or parallel conversion and load the incoming frames into the 1-Mbyte shared internal memory.
The AL1032 10-Gbit Ethernet switching processor costs $250 each/10,000.