Aitech Announces New Family of Expandable Managed Gigabit Ethernet Switches

Gigabit Ethernet Switches provide high speed connectivity and traffic management for streaming video, audio, data, etc; are used as a rack-mounts, backplanes or stand-alone boxes with a fixed number of ports and are tightly coupled with processors or I/O boards in embedded Telecom, Military and Aerospace applications.



Their use and application in embedded and military programs is constantly increasing as both data and telecommunications converge on IP-based networking.



Hardware-performed advanced switching and routing tasks (trunking, mirroring, filtering) instead of using the software ‘router’ stack, relieves CPUs for application processing.



Comprising three high-performance Gigabit Ethernet Switches for embedded and harsh environment applications (C660, C670 & C680), the family is based on Marvell's Bobcat Gigabit Ethernet Switch Controller and MTS Management Suite.



The simplified user web interface is an intuitive management tool, enabling convenient use of the switch's comprehensive feature set for better-optimised networks.



Switches are available in vibration- and shock-resistant versions as well as to commercial, rugged and military specifications with a maximum operating temperature range of -55°C to +85°C.



Their mechanical and electrical design guarantees reliable operation over the full range of rugged application environments and they are available in industry-standard conduction-cooled or air-cooled form factors.



The C660 and C680 are 6U cPCI and 3U VPX switches respectively, while the C670 is a 6U VPX switch, available in industry-standard 0.8”, 0.85” and 1.0” pitch conduction cooled or 1.0” pitch air-cooled form factors and in the VITA 48 (VPX REDI) format with covers to support two level maintenance LRM requirements for the 0.85 pitch version.



The BobCat-GE is able to perform Layer 2 and 3 routing and switching for up to 24 Gigabit Ethernet Ports and up to four 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports. The difference between Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching is the type of information in the frame used to determine the correct output interface: Layer 2 frame switching is based on MAC address information while Layer 3 frame switching is based on network-layer information (IP).



An integrated high performance low power ARM® compatible Sheeva™ CPU core operates at 800 MHz, functions as a Service Processor and interfaces to a high-speed DDRII-320 MHz memory controller.



Six multiplexed multi-rate network SERDES ports connected to six quad PHY controllers, support up to 24 Gigabit Ethernet ports. For the C660, four XAUI links provide connection to four 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports through front panel SFP+ modules. The C670 additionally has four XAUI links that provide connection to four 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports. Two of these XAUI links can optionally be routed to the C670 XMC connectors to extend the number of supported Gigabit Ethernet ports to 40 in a single slot.



For the C680, two XAUI links provide connection to 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports for backplane communication.



Board management devices include power controller, Elapsed Time Recorder, temperature sensors and RTC residing on the BobCat-GE I2C bus.



All Gigabit Ethernet ports (16 in the case of the C680) support 10/100/1000 Mbps rates through 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T connections. For the C660 and C670 eight of the 24 ports can also be factory configured as SERDES 1000Base-X ports. For the C680, eight of these may be factory configured as 16 SERDES 1000Base-X ports and four may be factory configured as two XAUI 10 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.



VP Sales EMEA & APAC, Rafi Horesh comments, “At Aitech we have been working to deliver this exciting new family of state-of-the-art Gigabit Ethernet Switches, but we don’t stop there. New features are currently becoming available to include Encryption/Security Engines and Wireless Interfaces. What makes us unique in this market is our ability and willingness to take these products and customise them, where necessary, to meet our customers' program requirements”.