ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: VTSS) today introduced the industry’s first complete chip set for the IEEE 802.3aq, 10GBASE-LRM (LRM) standard at the OFC/NFOEC conference.Vitesse’s new chip set exceeds performance requirements defined by the standard while at the same time achieving a competitively low price point to enable module manufacturers to accelerate deployment of 10 Gigabit Ethernet serial transmission over all grades of low cost multimode fiber. The chip set is also supported by a complete module reference design, including hardware and firmware, significantly shortening the time to market for optical module OEMs. The new 10GBASE-LRM chip set will be showcased at OFC/NFOEC 2006, in the Corporate Village, Hall B 1166 and 1067 March 7-9.

“This chip set is the only one available that exceeds the standard with enough margin to satisfy the complete customer base,” said Tony Conoscenti, Director of Marketing for the Network Products Division, Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation. “Not only does it surpass the performance bar, but it is half the price of competing solutions, making LRM optical modules an extremely cost competitive option for enterprise applications.”

Bringing Cost-Effective 10 GbE to Legacy Multimode Fiber

Today’s enterprise based data transmission is typically deployed over multi-mode fiber (MMF) at Ethernet data rates up to 1 Gbps (1 GbE). Future deployments require upgrading to 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) over the same installed fiber base. Optical signals transmitted through this installed base of fiber suffer from increasing levels of modal dispersion as the data rate increases, thereby limiting the maximum reach. The 10GBASE-LRM standard simplifies extended reach 10 GbE data transmission over legacy MMF by using just a single laser running at the full 10 Gbps data rate. This is accomplished by employing new electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) technology to compensate for the modal dispersion in multimode fiber, thereby enabling a new generation of low cost optical modules that will displace the more expensive and complex LX-4 modules. The demand to convert existing 1 GbE data links to 10 GbE rates has begun. This trend is projected to consume over one million ports per year by 2008.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (Nasdaq: VTSS)