Vitesse Sets Performance Standards for Signal Integrity Solutions with Introduction of FlexEQ™ Technology

Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (Pink Sheets:VTSS), a leading provider of advanced IC solutions for Carrier and Enterprise networks, is helping system designers manage increased network bandwidth demands with the introduction of FlexEQ™, a flexible, high-performance Electronic Dispersion Compensation (EDC) and Adaptive Equalization technology. It is specifically designed to enable communication signals to travel farther, faster, and error-free without upgrading the installed base of connectors, backplanes, and cables. FlexEQ technology transports data at speeds ranging from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps and above. Being deployed today in Vitesse crosspoint, transceiver, and clock and data recovery devices, this technology will be an integral feature in similar products slated for introduction in 2009.

"As a leader in signal integrity solutions, Vitesse’s FlexEQ-based transceivers are already shipping in volume production. We are well-positioned to take advantage of the expansion of network access bandwidth by continuing to anticipate the needs of today’s designers of tomorrow’s communications equipment for Carrier, Enterprise and Storage applications,” said Raymond Fontayne, senior manager of product marketing for Vitesse. "Our FlexEQ technology is being successfully deployed by our customers, accelerating time-to-market for system speed and capacity upgrades on a multitude of systems.”

Best-in-Class Backplane Performance Results

Carriers, service providers and data centers are faced with pressures to reduce cost while meeting the rising bandwidth demands brought about by enhanced services being delivered by cable, xDSL, FTTH, VoIP, IPTV, and wireless 3G/4G through the network. Vitesse’s distinctive FlexEQ technology has answered this critical market need by enabling bandwidth upgrades on existing backplanes, cables and fiber. The backplane performance results utilizing Vitesse’s CDR products show best-in-class performance at latest backplane speeds: 8 Gbps to 10 Gbps serial links have been demonstrated over one meter of legacy backplane traces and multiple connectors, all originally designed to support 3G or lower data rates.

Raising the Bar for Twinax Interconnect Solutions

With the standardization of Direct Copper Attach applications in recent committees such as 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) SFP+ (SFF8431) and 8.5G Fibre Channel (FC-PI-4), the market has seen growing interest in emerging passive and active Twinax interconnect solutions. Vitesse’s FlexEQ technology has been demonstrated with at least 15 meters of passive cable providing a booster to the current 10GBASE-T based solutions designed for UTP CAT 6/6a or STP CAT 7 which have previously struggled on technical merit, cost, and its very high power consumption (typically over 5 watts).

Improved Performance in Optical Applications

FlexEQ technology solves the difficult implementation of the Long Reach Multi-mode (LRM) specification in the IEEE P802.3aq 10GBASE-LRM standard. Vitesse has the industry’s most widely used LRM EDC, and now with FlexEQ offers the only solution today capable of meeting the difficult technical challenge of extending the use of currently deployed multi-mode fiber originally designed for 1 Gbps data transmission in the Enterprise to 10 Gbps. In fact, Vitesse provides the only device on the market that meets the original 300 meter target length of the standard.

Leading Solution in Long-reach SMF Applications

Ideal for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and SONET/SDH Carrier Ethernet and optical transport networks, Vitesse has incorporated FlexEQ into its single low-power, CMOS-based CDR which is distinguished as a leading solution in long-reach SMF applications. When used for single receive path applications and in 300-pin modules, the production-ready CDR compensates for both SMF chromatic dispersion and polarization-mode dispersion in poor OSNR environments.

Winning Combination: FlexEQ and VScope Waveform Viewing Technology

FlexEQ has been paired with Vitesse’s VScope technology which obtains accurate receive signal sampling superior to external probing methods. Post-equalizer scanning, made possible with VScope, delivers an unobstructed view of the internal IC signal compared to oscilloscopes that offer only an extrapolated view of signals from outside the chip. The combined FlexEQ and VScope technologies enable more accurate debug and faster system bring-up. Results confirm best-in-class performance at lowest cost-per-port across a wide array of data rates.

Vitesse to Present and Demonstrate FlexEQ Technology at DesignCon 2009

Vitesse will be demonstrating FlexEQ and VScope technologies in backplane and Twinax cable applications at the DesignCon 2009 show February 3-5, 2009 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. In addition, Vitesse will present a paper entitled, "Utilizing Electronic Dispersion Compensation (EDC) and Embedded Waveform Viewing Technologies in Next-Generation Backplanes.” Specific presentation time and conference information can be found at the DesignCon website: http://www.designcon.com/2009/.

To see a FlexEQ Twinax video-over-Ethernet demonstration first-hand, please visit booth #521 at DesignCon 2009. For more information about FlexEQ, please visit http://www.vitesse.com/flexeq. Information about VScope can be found by visiting http://www.vitesse.com/vscope.

About Vitesse

Vitesse designs, develops and markets a diverse portfolio of high-performance, cost-competitive semiconductor solutions for Carrier and Enterprise Ethernet networks worldwide. Engineering excellence and dedicated customer service distinguish Vitesse as an industry leader in Gigabit Ethernet LAN, Ethernet-over-SONET, Fibre Channel, Serial Attached SCSI, Optical Transport, and other applications. Vitesse innovation empowers customers to deliver superior products for Enterprise, Access, Metro, and Core applications. Additional company and product information is available at www.vitesse.com.

Vitesse is a registered trademark and FlexEQ and VScope are trademarks in the United States and/or other jurisdictions of Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective holders.

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