Fujitsu Announces Hybrid Ethernet and Metro ADM Chip for Gigabit Ethernet and PDH Transport

Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe (FME) today rolls out its ETHOS (ETHernet Over SDH/SONET) device, a pioneering product for full-rate Gigabit Ethernet and E1/DS1 access in Metro and Access networks, designed in collaboration with AimCom, a leading-edge design and development company specialising in Next Generation Carrier Class Optical Networking, based in The Netherlands.

Frankfurt (PRWEB) February 3, 2005 -- Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe (FME) today rolls out its ETHOS (ETHernet Over SDH/SONET) device, a pioneering product for full-rate Gigabit Ethernet and E1/DS1 access in Metro and Access networks, designed in collaboration with AimCom, a leading-edge design and development company specialising in Next Generation Carrier Class Optical Networking, based in The Netherlands.

The first certified samples of ETHOS have been shipped to customers for development and system testing. Its system-on-chip design enables cost effective and very compact customer located equipment; it is equally well-suited as the core device on Gigabit Ethernet interface cards in Multiservice aggregation equipment.

"The ETHOS device brings a new level of Ethernet and SONET/SDH integration to the access and metro-edge markets," said Simon Stanley, Principal Analyst with Earlswood Marketing. "The need for extra capacity in metro and access networks is fuelled by the rapidly growing number of end-users of broadband access via ADSL or cable modems, and new Internet applications such as video streaming and file sharing. This makes it one of the high growth segments in optical networking over the next few years."

"Telecom equipment companies are today demanding highly integrated components to create their compact, leading-edge products for next generation SDH aggregation networks. Thats why Fujitsu, together with AimCom developed ETHOS - a key building block that enables developers to create a hybrid solution for Ethernet and leased line
access. At the same time, it is my personal opinion, that ETHOS will help drive down costs by integrating support for VC-12 based grooming, line or ring protection and system timing," comments Dirk Weinsziehr, Senior Director, Marketing at FME.

The support for full-rate Gigabit Ethernet over protected SDH networks enables development of reliable, high bandwidth, network termination equipment. The standards based SDH implementation enables integration into existing optical networks, while Virtual Concatenation and LCAS enable dynamic bandwidth allocation in steps of VT-1.5 or VC-12, VC-3 or VC-4, according to service demand for end-users.

ETHOS is designed for equipment in customer premises access or metro aggregation networks. It also targets equipment for the wireless and DSLAM backhaul infrastructure due to its dual access technologies: providing an upgrade path as the access network migrates from cell based over E1/DS1 or STM-1/OC-3, to packet based over Ethernet.

Features
ETHOS is a fully integrated, single chip, add-drop multiplexer. Four line ports at STM-4/OC-12 or STM-1/OC-3 are provided, each supporting direct connection to SFP modules. There are 4 E1/DS1 ports, and 4 Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet ports on the access side, as well as higher & lower order cross-connect fabrics and a Telecom bus for port expansion. Ethernet frames are mapped via GFP, LAPS, or PPP, Virtual Concatenation and low latency LCAS.

The advanced feature set further includes an integrated system timing generator, Ethernet flow control, support for Jumbo frames, TCP friendly rate controllers for fine grained bandwidth assignment, and packet insertion and extraction for next generation carrier class Ethernet applications.

Availability:
ETHOS is designed in Fujitsu's 0.18 micron process, and delivered in a 756-pin BGA-TE package. Comprehensive support is available through datasheets, application notes, device model, reference design, and software. The device is currently sampling and will be available in volume production in March 2005.

About Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe
Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe (FME) is a major supplier of semiconductor and display products. The company provides advanced systems solutions to the automotive, digital TV, mobile telephony, networking and industrial markets. Engineers from design centres dedicated to microcontrollers, mixed-signal, wireless, FRAM, multi-media ICs and ASIC products work closely with FME's marketing and sales teams throughout Europe to help satisfy customers' system development requirements.

This solutions approach is supported by a broad range of advanced semiconductor devices, IP and building blocks as well as leading-edge LCDs and Plasma Display Panels. For more information visit Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe's website at http://www.fme.fujitsu.com

About AimCom
AimCom B.V. is a privately held semiconductor design company providing building blocks for Next Generation Optical Networking solutions for delivery of cost-effective SDH and Ethernet services. The company's products, designed for metro and regional service providers, are full-featured, carrier-class solutions, incorporating advanced optical transport and Ethernet over SDH/Sonet. For more information, please visit www.aimcom.nl

Issued on Behalf of:         
Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe      
Tel: +49-6103-690-0          
E-mail: jim.bryant@fme.fujitsu.com   
Contact: Jim Bryant         

More Information From:
JDk Marketing Communications
Tel: 0870 787 9510
E-mail: john@jdk.co.uk
Contact: John Kearley

Further information on Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe's products is available on our WWW address at: http://www.fme.fujitsu.com

A medium resolution picture relevant to this press release can be found by following the link:
ftp://213.166.4.46/Fujitsu/Press/MR014576-14.jpg

For a high resolution download option please follow the link:
ftp://213.166.4.46/Fujitsu/Press/HR014576-14.zip

###