Broadcom Launches New Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) Solutions

Broadcom's new energy efficient PHYs — the BCM54240, BCM54280, BCM54282 and BCM54285 implement the IEEE 802.3 EEE standard directly into the physical layer, while Broadcom's AutoGrEEEn technology enables systems with legacy MACs to leverage the power savings of EEE in periods of low link utilization, thus reducing time-to-market. This innovation allows customers to transform existing network equipment to EEE-compliance simply by changing the PHY device.

In addition to reducing power consumption and energy costs, the new PHYs provide integrated on chip 1588 PTP and Y.1731 delay measurement to deliver the most complete set of features in their class for timing synchronization and latency measurement — critical features for service provider and industrial Ethernet applications. With the emergence of 'all Ethernet'-based service provider networks, packet-based timing synchronization and latency measurement are now of fundamental importance to ensure maximum network performance as more demanding technologies and applications are deployed, while industrial Ethernet networks rely on time synchronization to synchronize actions across networks in real-time.

The BCM54280 40nm multi-port Gigabit PHY family consists of the following four devices:
•BCM54280: Octal-port SGMII 10/100/1000BASE-T PHY
•BCM54282: Octal-port QSGMII 10/100/1000BASE-T PHY
•BCM54285: Octal-port QSGMII 10/100/1000BASE-T PHY with Copper/Fiber Dual Media Interface
•BCM54240: Quad-port SGMII 10/100/1000BASE-T PHY with Copper/Fiber Dual Media Interface

Key Features:
•IEEE Std 802.3az 2010 EEE capacity for 1000BASE-T and 100BASE-TX
•Broadcom AutoGrEEEn technology extends EEE power savings to legacy MACs
•IEEE 1588v2 PTP and ITU-T Y.1731 delay measurement support
•Enhanced cable plant diagnostics that detect cable plant impairments

All devices are now sampling with production volume slated for the second half of 2012.