SwitchCore throws hat in IP DSLAM ring

SwitchCore AB, a fabless semiconductor company, this week launched a new switch on a chip, based on its enterprise product line, but targeting the IP DSLAM market.

The Xpeedium2Pro family, which consists of three chips, blends the cost of Ethernet with other features more typical to traditional broadband access. The result is a base technology that will allow OEMs to develop solutions for the IP DSLAM market. The company has been in conversation with several IP DSLAM vendors, said Mike Farnam, vice president of sales and marketing for SwitchCore, noting that many are being forced to look at new options for chip sets.

"We're seeing designs that we did three years ago with hot start-ups starting to shift to revenue now," he said. "We think the market opportunity is substantially larger than the current estimates."

The new line includes the CXE 2139, a 28-port Gigabit Ethernet (GE) device that offers a L2/L3 switch/router solution in a single piece of silicon; the CXE-2039, a 28-port GE switch which has all of the functionality of the CXE-2139, except Layer-3 forwarding; and the CXE-1109: a 24-port Fast Ethernet plus four port GE switch/router.

At the product level, the company anticipates its chip sets to be included on the backplanes of DSLAMs and in some instances on line cards.

"A lot of the initial platforms that have been rolled out are pretty basic in functionality," Farnam said. "One of the clear message we got was that they need to increase subscriber density."

Each Xpeedium2Pro device can support 4000 subscribers, with three separate SLA-enforced service levels per subscriber for voice, video and data.

"We have the ability to go in an segment out all the traffic and ensure that all the time-sensitive traffic gets priority," Farnam said.