20-Port 10GbE Switch IC Includes Serial SerDes

A 20-port, 10-Gbit/s Ethernet (10GbE) switch IC, the MB8AA3020, delivers 400+-Gbit/s, non-blocking, aggregate switching bandwidth through 3 Mbytes of proprietary, multi-stream shared buffer memory. The IC, which includes onboard 10-Gbit/s serial SerDes, is designed for high-density backplane switching for Advanced ATC and micro TCA, blade server, and data-center applications. Also, an on-chip micro-engine and the 2 by 10/100/1GbE management interface provide a high-level API for switch software, reducing the amount of software development required on the board. With a 300-ns pin-to-pin switching latency—including the SerDes in cut-through mode—the chip is well-suited for latency-sensitive applications.

The 10-Gbit/s serial ports eliminate the need for expensive off-chip Xaui-to-XFI SerDes, allowing direct connections to optical XFP modules on any port and helping to significantly reduce cost, latency, power consumption, and board space. In addition, the ports reduce the routing overhead inherent in running 4 by 3.125G lanes. The switch offers eight priority classifications per port, enabling priority switching based on DiffServ, MAC address, VLANs, extended VLANs, and ports. The MB8AA3020 also supplies data-center and carrier-grade Ethernet features like priority pause, backward congestion notification, and early-packet-drop capabilities for congestion management.