SAN JOSE—PLX Technology announced three new transceivers for 10 Gbit/s Ethernet over copper, cutting die size and cost nearly in half while adding features and shaving half a Watt off power consumption. The TN8000 parts come at a time when the 10GBase-T standard is finally seeing some market traction, more than two years after the standard was ratified.
The single-, dual- and quad-port devices are made in 40-nm technology and support distances of 120 m on Cat 6A cables. The chips provide new low power modes enhancing the Energy Efficient Ethernet standard (IEEE 802.3az). They also support Wake-on-LAN and variable or fixed latency for Media Access Control Security.
PLX has taped-out the chips and will start sampling them in February. Volume prices range from $20 to $40 per port.
The company competes with Broadcom, Marvell and startup Aquantia who also sell physical-layer chips for 10 Gbit/s Ethernet over copper.
PLX claims eight new switches-including ones from Arista Networks—and four motherboards or adapter cards have already designed in 10GBase-T links. Earlier this year, Cisco, Emulex and Hewlett-Packard announced support for 10GBase-T. For its part, Intel has also shown an integrated 10GBase-T transceiver called Twinville.
OEMs did not use the first generations of 10GBase-T transceivers because they consumed too much power. The new PLX chips consume 2.5W when sending data over 30 m and 3.5W when sending over 100 meters.
One market analyst recently forecast sales of 10GBase-T chips will be modest in next-generation servers at about $350 million through 2014. However, 28 nm chips are expected to be widely used on a future generation of server motherboards.
The long road to market adoption caused many 10GBase-T startups to fall prey to acquisitions at relatively low valuations. PLX got its technology when it acquired Teranetics in September 2010 for $36 million.
This story was originally posted by EE Times.
PLX refreshes 40nm 10GBaseT chips
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