SYSTIMAX Solutions™ from CommScope (NYSE: CTV), the worldwide leader in structured connectivity solutions, and Solarflare® Communications, a leading provider of high-performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet silicon, announced today the industry’s first public performance demonstration using Solarflare’s Solarstorm™ 10GBASE-T server adapters and the SYSTIMAX GigaSPEED® X10D cabling solution. The demonstration occurred in a demanding alien crosstalk environment to show the robustness of 10 Gigabit Ethernet to 100 meters on unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cabling.
SYSTIMAX Solutions and Solarflare Communications are actively collaborating to demonstrate the advances in cabling and electronics that will enable the mass-market adoption of 10GBASE-T. In December 2006, the SYSTIMAX Solutions Technical Bulletin “10G over UTP is Real: a Demonstration of 10GBASE-T Bandwidth and Throughput” described the reliable performance of the Solarflare 10GBASE-T 10Xpress® physical layer devices (PHYs) and the SYSTIMAX GigaSPEED X10D Solution over 100 meters of UTP in a demanding alien crosstalk environment.
The IEEE 802.3an Standard for 10GBASE-T requires that all PHYs for 10G on twisted pair copper reach 100 meters. In the public demonstration in France, the Solarflare Solarstorm™ 10GBASE-T server adapter, the industry’s first 100-meter reach 10GBASE-T server adapter, delivered near 10 Gb/s throughput, operating error-free over the worst case channel: four-connector, 100-meter, and in a demanding alien crosstalk environment.
The ability to use high-performance 10 Gb/s Ethernet connections for copper cabling is expected to make 10 Gigabit Ethernet more suitable and accessible to data center and enterprise networks. Solarflare believes it will do this by lowering the cost of 10 Gb/s networking while increasing its flexibility and scalability by enabling plug-and-play RJ-45 connectivity that supports channel topologies with up to four connections. This collaboration between SYSTIMAX Solutions and Solarflare Communications demonstrates that 10 Gb/s UTP cabling products and 10GBASE-T Ethernet network products such as the ones they are offering are ready for widespread use today.
Solarflare was the first PHY vendor to ship standards-compliant, 100-meter reach 10GBASE-T samples to customers in September 2006. The Solarflare Solarstorm server adapter reference design is an evaluation platform for Solarflare’s Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) customers. It combines the Solarflare Solarstorm™ 10G Ethernet Controller silicon, which was announced 29 January 2007, with the 10Xpress™ 10GBASE-T PHY.
“The Solarstorm 10G Ethernet controller delivers the optimal balance of performance, power and price, enabling the widespread implementation of 10 Gigabit Ethernet throughout data centers and enterprise networks,” said Bruce Tolley, Vice President of Marketing at Solarflare. “We believe the combination of Solarflare’s new Solarstorm 10G Ethernet Controller and 10Xpress 10GBASE-T PHY will accelerate deployment of 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
“Solarflare has been committed to solving the difficult technical problem of supporting the Ethernet standards and the clear requirement from standards and customers for 100-meter reach 10GBASE-T products,” Tolley continued. “The combination of our server adapter reference design with the GigaSPEED X10D 100-meter, 4-connector channel delivered an impressive, reliable performance in a public forum by providing error-free transmission exceeding the error rate requirement in the IEEE 802.3 10GBASE-T standard. We believe this clearly shows that our solution is robust and that solutions for 10 Gigabit Ethernet on UTP copper are available right now.”
SYSTIMAX Solutions believes it was the first vendor to provide a full 100-meter UTP solution that guarantees compliance with both the ratified IEEE 802.3an standards for 10GBASE-T and the new Category 6A/Class EA cabling standards. In December 2004, SYSTIMAX Solutions launched the SYSTIMAX GigaSPEED X10D Solution to provide a next-generation cabling solution that supports both the bandwidth needs of today’s enterprises and the needs of more demanding applications – such as high-resolution video, grid computing, storage area networking (SAN), and network attached storage (NAS).
“The 10GBASE-T standard was ratified in June 2006. Our Category 6A cabling products have been shipping since 2004. The reliability demonstrated by our GigaSPEED X10D Solution and the Solarflare 10GBASE-T products confirms our vision that 10 Gb/s over twisted pair cabling will move quickly from early adopters to mass-market – similar to the movement we saw when the 100 Mb/s and 1 Gb/s standards were ratified,” said Luc Adriaenssens, Senior Vice President of R&D and Technology, Enterprise, CommScope. “The cost reduction and power consumption curves are very steep for network electronics. As enterprises look back on how their bandwidth needs have grown and changed over time, they should look closely at what they expect their bandwidth needs to be in the future with respect to investing in 10 Gb/s-enabled twisted pair cabling. We believe they should be evaluating Category 6A cabling and 10GBASE-T products now.”
This industry-leading 10GBASE-T performance demonstration is being conducted 30 January to 2 February at Cisco Networkers 2007 in Cannes, France.
Solarflare Communications designed the Solarstorm 10 Gigabit Ethernet controller to deliver the industry’s lowest-power, lowest-latency 100-meter solution, and to leverage the host CPU as efficiently as possible resulting in an attractive price/performance ratio. Solarstorm server adapter reference designs (10GBASE-T, 10GBASE-CX4, and XFP optical) are available now and each one is priced at $1,500. The Solarflare 10Xpress 10GBASE-T PHY supports distances of at least 100 meters on UTP Category 6A cabling. The PHY is currently sampling. Pricing is available upon request. For more information about these products, contact: productinfo@solarflare.com.
The SYSTIMAX GigaSPEED X10D Solution is one of many industry-leading copper, fiber, and patching solutions introduced by SYSTIMAX Solutions in recent years. To offer the enterprise market more information on the important role these connectivity solutions play in building a reliable network infrastructure, SYSTIMAX Solutions has developed an educational document, “A Guide to 10 Gigabit Ethernet Technologies”. To receive a free copy of this document, email your request to systimax@systimax.com.
About SYSTIMAX Solutions
SYSTIMAX Solutions from CommScope (NYSE: CTV) is a worldwide leader in structured cabling systems and provides integrated end-to-end connectivity solutions for video, voice, data and building management applications in both wired and wireless enterprise networks.
SYSTIMAX Solutions supplies its high-performance and market-leading range of products through a network of highly skilled BusinessPartners. The product range includes the copper-based GigaSPEED X10D and GigaSPEED XL Solutions, the fiber optic LazrSPEED® and TeraSPEED™ Solutions and the iPatch® Real Time Infrastructure Management System. The SYSTIMAX AirSPEED™ Solution adds a wireless option to the portfolio. Drawing on their Bell Labs heritage, the people of SYSTIMAX Labs who have spearheaded these innovations will continue to play an integral role in the future success of SYSTIMAX Solutions. Currently the company’s BusinessPartners install an average of over 1,000 miles (1,600km) of SYSTIMAX cable every day in approximately 130 countries worldwide.
For further information please visit http://www.systimax.com
About Solarflare™ Communications Inc.
Solarflare Communications Inc. is a leading silicon vendor delivering Ethernet products that enable the rapid adoption of 10 Gigabit for data center and enterprise networks. Solarflare was the first company to demonstrate and sample to customers a standards-compliant, 100-meter reach 10GBASE-T PHY. The company’s high-performance Ethernet solutions will lower the cost of 10G networking for data center and enterprise customers. The privately held company is headquartered in Irvine, California with a development center in Cambridge, UK.
For more information, visit http://www.solarflare.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements in this press release that are not historical facts should be considered forward-looking statements that are based on information currently available to management, management's beliefs, as well as on a number of assumptions concerning future events. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results to differ materially from those currently expected. For a more detailed description of the factors that could cause such a difference, please see CommScope's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In providing forward-looking statements, the company does not intend, and is not undertaking any obligation or duty, to update these statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Fiona Nolan
SYSTIMAX Solutions
Tel: +353 1 204 2000
fnolan@systimax.com
or
Slider & Associates for Solarflare Communications
Sacha Arts
Tel: +1 408 356 3099
sacha@sliderassociates.com