Ethernet Transceiver Targets High-Speed Network Systems

Manufactured using 0.18 micron CMOS technology, the low-power-dissipating VSC7226 four channel, serial backplane interconnect IC is designed to operate at data rates suitable for 10-Gigabit Ethernet at the high-end operation, double-speed Fibre Channel rates in the mid-range, and Gigabit Ethernet rates at the low-end. The chip facilitates the design of 10-Gigabit Ethernet systems by providing extra capacity for encoding overhead within its data transfer rate of 3.125 Gb/s on each of the four serial channels. And it eliminates the task of designing parallel bus architectures for network switches, routers, hubs, I/O modules and other equipment with high-bandwidth interconnection requirements. The VSC7226 serializes four 8-bit (or 10-bit) data channels and sends the serial data over four differential signal pairs. And it delivers a serialized, duplex aggregated data transfer rate of up to 20 Gb/s over four channels. The parallel data is configurable for four 8-bit channels, two 16-bit channels, or a single 32-bit channel. The VSC7226 requires a single 2.5V supply, typically dissipates 3.0W, is available in an industry standard 256-pin, 21-mm BGA package and costs $70 each/10K.