Case Study:

Almost all data and trading markets rely heavily on instant, or close to instant information exchange. Thus an everlasting demand for proven, predictable and repeatable as low as possible latency of information propagation. This said, a case study is a design of 10x1G by 1x10G optical, pure Ethernet, low latency switch for the mentioned markets. The latency in packet propagation from ingress to egress port needed to be below 300ns. Additionally it needed to be deterministic and guaranteed.

Solution:

In order to process a total of 20Gbps input throughput an obvious choice is an FPGA. Still, low latency approach, demands an external PHYs, as they guaranteed much lower latencies in comparison to a fully integrated FPGA only based approach.

The solution, in its essence is a full blown HDI system and it requires careful signal integrity considerations. In parallel with PCB design and production, efforts are made to develop the FPGA design, inclusive of test cases. Consequent testing on millions of packets, has shown a reliable and robust performance.

Careful problem analysis and attention to details yields all the benefits in quick design closure and design success.The methodology as such is thoroughly applied in Bitgear on every project and has been proven to have excellent outcomes.

Added Value

• Full scale HDI PCB design
• Novel algorithmic L2 switching
• Scalable system design
• Self test and latency measurement design expansions