PHY Transceiver Slashes Power And Size

Introduced as the industry's lowest power and smallest 8-port Gigabit Ethernet physical layer (PHY) transceiver chip, the BCM54980 is manufactured in a 90-nm process technology. The device dissipates less than 500 mW per port and promises to reduce PCB space by up to 40% in metro and enterprise switch designs. Of particular note is its fully configurable channel swapping capabilities, which are said to allow for more flexible board designs. This is a proprietary technology that can compensate for cable wiring errors in the patch panel or bad cabling in general. Other features include hardware-accelerated CableChecker technology for faster diagnostic run times. BROADCOM CORP., Irvine, CA. (949) 450-8700.