Infineon Announces EOS Chip

MUNICH -– Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX) today announced the addition of an EoS (Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH) mapper/framer to its portfolio of optical networking products. The new MetroMapper™ 622 chip will enable both data communications and traditional telecommunications SONET/SDH equipment vendors to develop flexible systems that support current and emerging Ethernet/data transport services over the existing metropolitan-area optical fiber infrastructure.

Infineon is the first supplier in the industry to offer its customers a complete portfolio of optical networking solutions for any implementation, from pure legacy SONET/SDH to resilient packet ring (RPR) and EoS.

“The MetroMapper 622 chip represents the culmination of our continuing efforts to deliver the broadest portfolio of standards-based solutions to the optical networking market,” said Subodh Toprani, senior vice president and general manager, Wireline Communications Business Group, at InfineonTechnologies North America. “It squarely addresses the fastest growing communications market segment, which is using the SONET/SDH infrastructure to deliver Ethernet services, and complements our solutions for networkssupporting ‘pure’ TDM and RPR applications.”

The MetroMapper 622 mapper/framer, the first member of a new family of networking ICs, allows equipment manufacturers to develop systems that meet the latest Ethernet transport requirements as defined by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) and ITU-T, including seamless interface between private and carrier networks, and any-point-to-any-point connectivity. It is the only EoS chip to offer a hitless LCAS (Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme) engine and extensive Layer 2 functionality on-chip. It also has the highest VCG (virtual concatenation group) density in the industry, and its LCAS engine has been proven in a real network environment.

"Carriers and system vendors are unified in their desire to provide Ethernet-over-SONET services using the combination of GFP, VCAT, and LCAS," said Allan Armstrong, director of communications semiconductors at analyst firm RHK, Inc. "Framer/mappers that enable sophisticated new tributary capabilities will go a long way toward making EoS affordable and pave the way to the much desired and inevitable convergence of Layer 1 and Layer 2 processing."

Infineon Technologies AG