TPACK Partners with Cypress on Reference Design For Ethernet Switches and Traffic Managers

Cypress Semiconductor and TPACK, an industry-leading provider of ICs that provide core data transport and switching functions, today announced a reference design for ultrafast Ethernet switches and queue management applications. The new Springbank reference design combines TPACK’s TPX4004 high-capacity integrated packet processor and traffic manager with Cypress’s CY7C15632KV18 72-Mbit Quad Data Rate™II+ (QDR™II+) SRAMs, offering the fastest available speeds with roadmaps for simple upgrades. The TPACK reference design also provides an easy interface to various FPGAs and is backed by robust application support.

TPACK’s high-reliability 40-Gbps TPX4004 provides true Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)-defined, carrier-class performance. The extremely flexible, feature-rich layer 2 solution offers the ability to adapt to different system architectures and requirements. Cypress’s QDRII+ SRAMs are the industry’s first to go into high-volume production on 65-nm linewidth. The Cypress SRAMs feature the market’s fastest available clock speed of 550 MHz and a total data rate of 80 Gbps in a 36-bit I/O width QDRII+ device, using half the power of 90-nm SRAMs.

“Being first to market with this reference design demonstrates our technological leadership in high-throughput external memory solutions for carrier Ethernet switches and traffic managers,” said Thomas Rasmussen, Vice President of Product Line Management at TPACK. “Partnering with Cypress assures us of the highest performance and reliability from the industry’s leading SRAM supplier.”

“TPACK’s high-performance Springbank reference design is an excellent platform to showcase the blazing speeds of our 65-nm QDRII+ SRAMs in an advanced design for the networking market,” said David Kranzler, Vice President of Synchronous Memory and Timing Products at Cypress. “We look forward to working with TPACK on future projects, both with our SRAMS and our strong portfolio of timing solutions for networking applications.”

Compared with their 90-nm predecessors, Cypress’s 65-nm QDR and DDR SRAMs lower input and output capacitance by 60 percent. The QDRII+ and DDRII+ devices have On-Die Termination (ODT), which improves signal integrity, reduces system cost and saves board space by eliminating external termination resistors. The 65-nm devices use an advanced design and technology resulting in a 35 percent wider data valid window to reduce development time and cost for the customer.