September 15, 2008 -- Phyworks announced that it has successfully completed system level interoperability testing of its 10 Gbps active equalizer in an SFP+ active copper cable assembly. Carried out at the University of New Hampshire's Interoperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), the testing verified that copper cables integrating the PHY2060 active equalizer/retimer IC could achieve 100% error free transmission passing data between different switches.
In the packet error ratio test, Cisco Nexus 5020 and Arastra DCS-7124S switches were connected to each end of a 10 meter (33 feet), 26AWG twin-ax copper cable assembly. Data traffic composed of 200 million 1518-byte ICMP echo requests was generated and sent across the cable at a BER of 10-12 or better. Test results confirmed that no data packets were lost.
Phyworks CEO Stephen King comments, "Data centers, system and cable manufacturers are all seeking a lower power, lower cost alternative to existing 10G optical and copper solutions for short range data links. This independent operability test, from a well respected test house, proves that copper cables can provide another solution at 10G which is better suited to shorter distances than 10GBASE-SR and CX4."
To support an increasing range of voice, video and data services while keeping capital expenditure down, data center operators are turning to interconnect technology as a means of reducing cost and power consumption. Phyworks contends that its PHY2060 easily integrates into hot-pluggable active XFP and SFP+ copper cable assemblies providing data center operators with greater system flexibility and choice.
King concludes, "In terms of reliability and performance, we have already proven that copper cable assemblies based on the PHY2060 chip will actually guarantee link performance up to 30 meters, and since 80% of data center interconnects for example are up to this length, the test results will be significant news for the industry as a whole. Data centers in particular need cost, weight and power taken out. "
On the Web:
www.phyworks-ic.com
www.iol.unh.edu
