May 19, 2010

Solarflare Communications says it has begun sampling what it calls the industry’s first 40nm quad-port 10GBase-T PHY chip. Solarflare’s fourth-generation PHY―the SFT9104―has passed testing on links up to 100 metres. Combined with low power and data centre features, Solarflare believes the SFT9104 enables a new class of high-density modular switches and servers, “setting a new performance and cost point for 10GbE connectivity”. Under normal 100-m operation, the SFT9104 consumes 2.5 watts per port. The chip has multiple data centre power modes, including a 1.5W low power and latency mode for in-the-rack apps. The SFT9104 is fully backward compatible with both 1000Base-T and 100Base-TX, enabling integration while preserving investments in existing infrastructures. The chip is sampling now to key customers, and will be in production in Q4.

SOLARFLARE COMMUNICATIONS