November 17, 2008 -- Aquantia has begun sampling of its multi-rate 10GBASE-T PHY transceiver. The company bills its AQ1002 as "a monolithic, low-power, full-reach 10G/1G/100M PHY, which brings the benefits of twisted pair cabling and auto-negotiation to 10-Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) networking."
The AQ1002's low power of 5.5W over 100 m of Cat 6a cable will accelerate adoption of 10GBASE-T, maintains Aquantia, as it enables dual-port network adapters (NIC/HBA/CNA) and high-density switches with the ubiquitous RJ45 connector. The company notes that the AQ1002 also performs at an even lower power of 4.5W for the IEEE Short Reach Mode of 10GBASE-T. Short-reach distances of 30 meters satisfy requirements for modular end-of-row switches. Top-of-rack switches will also exploit Short-Reach power while reaping the additional benefits of 10GBASE-T.
Wake-on-LAN (WoL) is another critical attribute of the AQ1002, which implements a feature associated with Ethernet over twisted-pair. This energy savings or "green" feature permits servers to enter a sleep state when not in use, and to be "woken-up" by the network when required to come back on line. According to Aquantia, the AQ1002 contains all the circuitry to monitor for the "magic packet" and wake the server from the network. Since these functions are performed wholly within the AQ1002, the rest of the adapter can be powered down. Link speed will typically be reduced to 100BASE-TX for the server to meet power requirements within the sleep state.
"IT data center and distributed network managers need universal and scalable high-speed copper connectivity, to match the growing dominance of 10-GbE servers and switches in their networks," remarks Aquantia's president and CEO, Phil Delansay. "Since 10GBASE-T is now the endorsed, mainstream interconnect standard of top-tier server vendors, we are approaching a tipping point in the industry. The combination of features, low power consumption, product density and low cost is now going to start driving volume usage of 10GBASE-T PHYs like the multi-rate AQ1002. There is clearly pent-up demand for the capabilities of our new PHY, and we are pleased to offer availability with this product's proven strengths."
The AQ1002 comes in a compact 21-mm BGA package. The device is available today in sample form, and will be released to production in January 2009. Evaluation kits are available.
On the Web:
www.aquantia.com