Aquantia announces industry’s highest density quad-port 10GBASE-T

MILPITAS, USA: Aquantia, the leading developer of mainstream 10Gigabit Ethernet connectivity solutions, announced the sampling of the AQ1402, a quad-port 10GBASE-T PHY IC, in a 25mm x 25mm package. The AQ1402 is the smallest quad-port 10GBASE-T PHY available to date in the industry. It is also the only device that allows a single-row implementation for mainstream 1RU 48-port 10Gigabit Ethernet switches.

As 10GBASE-T LAN-on-Motherboard (LOM) sees widespread adoption in servers in the second half of 2011, connectivity to low-cost, high port count 10Gigabit Ethernet switches will become an essential and complementary network element in Data Centers and Cloud Computing environments.

2x4 Integrated Connector Modules (ICM), which integrate the RJ45 connectors and the magnetics into an 8-port compact module, are commonly used in the design of high-density switches such as Top-of-Rack or End-of-Row 48-port Ethernet switches. The width of these ICMs, 59 mm, determines the 25 mm maximum dimension of a quad-port device, such that two of them, including minimum spacing between each, fit side by side in a single row.

Any quad-port device designed in a 27mm x 27mm package or larger will force a 2-row staggered implementation, thus doubling the depth of the PHY section on the board. The staggered design also has the disadvantage of creating a significant variable length for the traces between the IC and the ICM, creating performance impact and uncertainties on this critical signal path.

Aquantia’s AQ1402, with its 25mm x 25mm package size, is the only 10GBASE-T quad-port PHY device to enable the single-row configuration, thus dramatically decreasing the PHY footprint on Ethernet switches, and accelerating its mainstream deployments.