Ethernet Switches Smash Latency And Cost Barriers

The FocalPoint 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch family claims a breakthrough with a 200-ns total latency figure, reportedly a 10-times improvement over currently available devices. Reportedly, the low latency makes Ethernet comparable to specialty data center interconnects such as Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, and Myrinet, as well as a cost-effective backplane fabric for blade computing systems or AdvancedTCA systems. The chips provide up to 24 Ethernet ports and implement support for advanced data center topologies such as fat trees--a multi-tier network design that links switches at each tier to maintain high bandwidth between the endpoints. The FM2224 provides 24 quad, SerDes Ethernet interfaces, each of which can be configured to operate in 10 Gb/s, 2.5 Gb/s, and 10/100/1,000 modes. The FM2112 contains eight quad interfaces along with 16 single, SerDes interfaces that can support 2.5 Gb/s and 10/100/1,000 modes. Both devices include VLAN support, link aggregation, port- and MAC-based security, spanning tree link management, shared and protected packet-storage memory, and support for 16K MAC address entries. Prices for the FM2224 and FM2112 are $450 each/5,000 and $265 each/10,000, respectively. FULCRUM MICROSYSTEMS INC., Calabasas Hills, CA. (818) 871-8100.