The IEEE 802.3an task force is gaining support as it develops the industry standard for 10-Gbit Ethernet over twisted-pair copper cabling.
One recent round of support came from KeyEye Communications Inc. (Menlo Park, CA, www.keyeye.net), a maker of 10-Gbits/sec copper-media Ethernet transceivers. The company announced its support for what it describes as the task force's "direction-setting votes" as it develops the standard.
"KeyEye has been a staunch advocate of the IEEE standards-setting process, and we are pleased that the process has again yielded the best possible technical solution to the challenge being addressed," says Harvey Scull, president and CEO of KeyEye Communications.
KeyEye is a fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops, and markets high-performance multi-gigabit transceivers for interconnections between and within networking, computing, and storage equipment. KeyEye's family of single-chip 10-Gbits/sec transceivers, based on the company's EchoWave technology, is designed to enable the lowest-cost communication solutions using existing cable over typical data center distances.
The 802.3an task force was officially created with the approval of the 802.3 Working Group last November. KeyEye has been an active contributor to the task force. The final 10GBase-T standard is expected to be approved by the IEEE in the summer of 2006.
KeyEye representatives say the task force has made significant progress in its work on the standard, selecting several requirements for standards-compliant communications. One of the task force's requirements specified the use of a forward error correction technique known as low-density parity check, rather than a competing scheme that relied on trellis coding. Another requirement specified was the use of Tomlinson-Harashima precoding, an advanced form of precomposition for a cable's transmission channels.
Scull says KeyEye has been developing technology for the past two years and soon plans to deliver an entire family of low-cost 10-Gbits/sec copper transceivers, including 10GBase-T-compliant products.