Broadcom debuts 65nm 10GbE PHY transceiver

Broadcom Corp. has rolled out a 65nm 10GbE PHY transceiver to support IEEE 802.3 10GBASE-T operation over 100m of Category 6A unshielded twisted pair (UTP) or Category 7 cables. Fabricated in 65nm CMOS process technology, the new device is a single-chip/single-die solution, versus competitive solutions that require multiple chips. The Broadcom 10GBASE-T PHY is the only device in the industry to support auto-negotiation between four different Ethernet speeds (10/100/1000Mbitt/s and 10Gbit/s), enabling compatibility with the installed base of Ethernet technology.

The 10GbE-over-copper market is poised to grow substantially over the coming years since it delivers the higher bandwidth needed to support the ongoing convergence of networking, high performance computing and storage traffic in the enterprise and data center. The 10GbE market is positioned for significant growth driven by the deployment of Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop. These applications require upstream devices that have a higher throughput capability, similar to the converged data center, where server connectivity and storage applications are currently migrating to 10GbE speeds.

To address this market requirement, Broadcom offers the BCM8481 10GBASE-T transceiver. This fully integrated DSP-based architecture combines front-end with analog-to-digital converters, adaptive equalizers, phased locked loops, line drivers, low density parity check (LDPC) encoders and decoders, echo and crosstalk cancellers, and the industry standard XAUI interface.

Technical details
The BCM8481 PHY transceiver is optimized to enable switch, controller and other general 10GbE connectivity applications since it supports the 4-lane 3.125Gbit/s XAUI interface that allows connectivity to 10GbE MACs. One lane of the 4-lane XAUI interface is reserved to support the SGMII interface and lower speed 10/100/1000BASE-T operations.

The product also includes a pass-through XAUI interface mode that allows optional connectivity to a fiber optic module. Switching between copper and fiber media can be accomplished either automatically or through software control. Additionally, the BCM8481 monitors copper link and fiber detect status, and based on priorities set at initialization, automatically swaps either copper traffic or fiber traffic to the media access controller interface.

The BCM8481 10GBASE-T PHY transceiver is sampling to early access customers. Pricing is available upon request.