Marvell, a developer of broadband communications solutions, and Finisar Corp., a Gigabit fiber-optic solutions maker, announced they have teamed up to offer what they term the industry’s first Gigabit solutions to provide flexibility in copper and fiber media selection.
The two solutions are Marvell’s Alaska Ultra+ PHY transceiver, which offers an integrated circuit (IC) solution, and Finisar’s suite of Gigabit Interface Converters (GBICs), which offers hot-pluggable modular support for both fiber and copper interfaces.
“Since the installed base of Gigabit Ethernet systems, currently in the millions of units, consists of both copper (1000BASE-T) and fiber interfaces (1000BASE-SX/LX), network equipment manufacturers have had to develop multiple product skews in support of each Gigabit media type,” said Weili Dai, Marvell’s executive vice president of the Communications Business Group. “The Alaska Ultra+ IC transceiver is a truly compelling solution, allowing the end-user to automatically configure to either fiber or copper media, providing a complete “plug and play” solution. Additionally, for the first time, the end-user has the freedom to choose fiber or copper on a per port basis.”
“Using the industry standard GBIC form factor, systems based on Finisar’s product family can offer support for all Gigabit Ethernet media types, from CAT 5 copper cabling to 80km fiber-optic links,” said Dick Woodrow, vice president of Sales and Marketing at Finisar. “By having the flexibility of supporting all media types from a single product platform, system manufacturers can reduce development as well as inventory costs, and pass these savings on to their customers.”
Marvell Alaska Ultra+ Gigabit Ethernet over copper transceiver samples (88E1011S) is currently available. The 88E1011S is priced at $36.00/1K quantity. The Finisar FCM-8519-3 1000BASE-T GBIC module is currently in volume production and is priced at $100.00/10K quantity.
