Accelerant Targets Backplane Upgrade

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Accelerant Networks today announced availability of its AN6425 6.25 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) quad backplane transceiver, the first in its new AN6000 family of low power (less than 1 Watt), high speed SERDES (Serializer-Deserializer) transceiver products.

The AN6425 is targeted for the upgrade of existing network, server and storage systems to 6.25 Gb/s data rates and above. The single-chip device is the industry's most efficient backplane transceiver solution, combining all of the elements needed to unlock hidden bandwidth in the backplanes of currently-deployed systems: increased speed, low power, data rate flexibility and reliability.

Today's backplane data rates of 622 Megabits per second (Mb/s) to 3.125 Gb/s have traditionally been a bottleneck, limiting the amount of bandwidth existing systems can support. Accelerant has proven that hidden, useable bandwidth exists in these deployed backplanes through actual transceiver testing at up to 10 fold faster rates on more than 60 systems.

In addition to increased performance, results of these tests have clearly demonstrated the ability of the single-chip AN6425 to deliver breakthrough reliability levels, with Bit Error Rates (BER) of better than 1e-18 across the entire range of 1 Gb/s to 10 Gb/s over existing backplanes. This reliability rating is orders of magnitude better than the industry's typical BER specification of 1e-12.

"Networking, storage and server system manufacturers all share the same desire to offer end customers enhanced port density and bandwidth to lower overall cost per bit," said Bill Hoppin, vice president of marketing for Accelerant Networks. "With fewer end customers implementing wholesale changes of installed chassis, system developers are looking for cost-effective ways to upgrade their customers' existing equipment. We believe our focus on reliable high speed transmission over existing low cost interconnects, as opposed to depending on expensive new materials and techniques, paves the way for enhanced bandwidth where systems developers need it most: in the installed base of equipment."

"Accelerant's 10 Gb/s SERDES technology works great over our broadband backplanes," said John Webley, CEO of Turin Networks Inc. "Increased backplane link speeds support higher bandwidth blades, which means higher port densities and lower costs for our MSPP and cross connect (DACS) customers. The distributed fabric architecture, used in Turin's Traverse platforms, makes it possible to add blades that use higher speed backplane links without obsoleting deployed blades or requiring upgrades to any common equipment."

Based on Accelerant's intelligent silicon technology, the device uses adaptive equalization to unlock hidden bandwidth in existing, low cost FR4 backplanes common to network, server and storage equipment currently installed worldwide. Adaptive equalization compensates for the loss and inter-symbol interference of older, less optimal backplane interconnects and enables signal transmission up to ten times faster than previously possible. Using Accelerant's technology, very low bit error rates are achieved with minimal power consumption and maintained over temperature and humidity.

"Rather than developing new systems, OEMs are focusing on extending the life of existing systems," said Jag Bolaria of the Linley Group. "Accelerant offers developers the ability to operate at very high data rates over installed backplane interconnects with high reliability and low power consumption. Consequently, system developers can offer their customers greater bandwidth while staying within power and thermal requirements of the existing chassis. Because these upgrades consist of changes to switch and line cards only, the system does not have to be taken off line."

Accelerant Networks Inc.