eeProductCenter Ultimate Products 5.2

Analog Boards / Buses DSP Electromechanical Embedded Tools Interconnects Microprocessors Memory Logic and Interfaces Passives / Sensors PLDs / FPGAs Power Components Power Sources RF / Microwave Test / Measurement

Product Shopper New Product Info

(1)
FUJITSU
Fujitsu intros industry first 802.3ap (KR) 26-port 10GbE switch IC
eeProductCenter's Carolyn Mathas says: "Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc., unveiled an industry first single chip 26-port 10GbE switch, the MB86C69RBC, with 26 x 10Gbps multi-rate ports plus 2 x 1Gbps management ports. It provides direct support of 10Gbps serial interface for 802.3ap (KR) on all 26 ports as well as SFP+ capability. In addition to featuring the industry's highest density, at 22W, the IC also delivers the lowest power and also has the smallest footprint."

Readers say:
"The power dissipation is the lowest in the industry but dissipating 22W in a small box is still a challenge."

"If somebody has an ATCA product that utilizes "MB86C69RBC " I will use it."

"The ability to utilize 10GbE bandwidth from a COTS product allows a system integrator to work on next generation communication systems."

"Looks like a great part for High Speed Serial data. We may be able to use this in future design in our product."

USABILITY RANK: 1

(2)
XILINX
Xilinx unveils cool tools supporting new Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs
eeProductCenter's Clive Maxfield says: "The folks at Xilinx have announced their embedded development environment of tools and ecosystem technologies for supporting innovative system-on-chip designs targeting the company's newest 65 nm Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs."
Readers say:

"The ability to use a Linux OS from MonteVista shortens prototype to product significantly."

"Xilinx tool deployments, licensing, and IP Core licensing has been horrendous in terms of deployment across and enterprise. While they may offer some technical capabilities, their small-co and data harvesting by way of registrations etc.. stand between the engineers and the tools used to target the hardware they should be selling."

USABILITY RANK: 2

(3)
EXAR
Wireless UART chipset eliminates cables for serial, parallel interfaces
eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "Aimed at industrial applications, Exar Corp. has released a wireless UART solution that consists of two devices that can be used either as a chipset or separately. The chipset includes the XR18W750, a wireless UART controller, and the XR18W753, an RF (868MHz to 956MHz) transceiver. The wireless UART chipset can be designed onto existing boards, or integrated into add-on wireless adapter cards providing wireless capabilities to systems currently using serial cables."

USABILITY RANK: 3

(4)
INTUICOM
RF transceiver module delivers small size, long range
eeProductCenter's Gina Roos says: "Intuicom, Inc. has introduced the C1000μ, an ultra-small spread spectrum OEM RF transceiver module that features a data communications range of up to 60 miles and up to a 1.2 Mbits/s data rate. Packaged in a 2.00 x 1.42 x 0.38-inch (LxWxH) footprint and weighting 18 grams, the C1000μ targets military/aerospace instruments and commercial systems where size, weight, and power consumption are critical design issues. The RF transceiver module is well-suited for unmanned vehicles, robotics, and portable devices."

Readers say:
"Way too expensive for this category and market niche."

USABILITY RANK: 4

(5)
SILICONBLUE
Hot new FPGA company announces cool (ultra-low-power) FPGA
eeProductCenter's Clive Maxfield says: "The folks at SiliconBlue have just announced a revolutionary new class of single-chip, ultra-low-power FPGA devices, that they say set a new industry standard for price, power, and space along with unprecedented ASIC-like logic capacity for battery-powered, handheld consumer applications."

Readers say:

"Difficult market to break into. Good positioning/technology"

"Why aren't the major FPGA suppliers coming out with product offerings like this?"

"Should not have tied themselves to Magma."

USABILITY RANK: 5

(6)
SEIKO EPSON
Controller targets electronic paper displays
eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "Seiko Epson Corp. has teamed up with E Ink Corp. to develop a display controller IC that delivers new capabilities for E Ink's Vizplex-enabled electronic paper displays. EPD's low-power-consumption screen technology is aimed at an emerging class of mobile applications, such as e-books, e-newspapers, tablet PCs, laptop secondary displays, e-notebooks, and e-dictionaries."

USABILITY RANK: 9

(7)
GENNUM
3-Gbit/s Tx/Rx chips integrate SerDes, A/V processing
eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "Gennum Corp. has developed what it says is the industry's first single-chip transmit and receive products to support 3-Gbit/s, as well as high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD), for serial digital interface (SDI) applications."

USABILITY RANK: 7

(8)
BROADCOM
Dual-channel 10-GbE transceiver exceeds 10GBASE-KR specs
eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "Broadcom Corp. announced a low-power 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) PHY in support of the IEEE 10GBASE-KR standard for running 10-Gbit/s serial data over backplane systems. The PHY device extends the life of today's existing systems that use four lanes to carry 10-Gbit/s (XAUI) data rates by providing a four times bandwidth improvement per channel. The dual KR-to-XAUI PHY enables 10-, 2.5- and 1-GbE on existing backplane applications."

Readers say:
"A product we can utilize in our ongoing experiments with high speed optic connections to electrical interfaces."

USABILITY RANK: 8

(9)
NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR
SerDes chipset claims lowest jitter, enables easy interface to FPGAs
eeProductCenter's Gina Roos says: "National Semiconductor Corp. has introduced a serializer and deserializer (SerDes) chipset that the company claims delivers the industry's best output jitter performance of 35 ps peak-to-peak and the best input jitter tolerance of 0.9 units interval (UI) with a bit error rate (BER) of 10-15. The SerDes chipset serializes data up to 3.125 Gbits/s and is well-suited for industrial and medical imaging, communications infrastructure, commercial displays, and test and measurement systems."

Readers say:
"Useful device for applications where FPGAs without built-in Xcievers."

USABILITY RANK: 6

(10) SOLARFLARE COMMUNICATIONS
10GBASE-T transceiver consumes less than 6W
eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "Solarflare Communications announced its next-generation 10GBASE-T PHY and enhanced 10GbE controller products, which include the 10Xpress SFT9001 PHY that consumes less than 6.0 watts at maximum 100 meter reach and the Solarstorm SFC4000E vNIC controller that consumes less than 2.2 watts at full line-rate performance."

USABILITY RANK: 10

In case you were wondering, here's how Ultimate Products works: Our editors select up to 10 of the most significant products posted at www.eeProductCenter.com during the calendar quarter. Then, using an electronic balloting process, we submit the products with the accompanying editorial reviews to selected, qualified readers. Those readers score the products by technical significance and
USABILITY on a scale of 1 through 5, with 5 being the highest score. The product ranked No. 1 in each category was judged as most technically significant for that category. Relative
USABILITY rankings and selected reader comments are also reported. More than 1,000 of you helped to choose these products. As always, we are grateful for your enthusiastic participation.

Patrick Mannion
Editor-in-Chief, Techonline Network and eeProductcenter.com
pmannion@cmp.com