Marvell Debuts Gigabit Ethernet Switch Platform

Marvell introduced a Gigabit Ethernet switch platform aimed at cost-conscious businesses with an eye on reducing energy costs and increase network bandwidth.

Integrated silicon solutions specialist Marvell introduced a Gigabit Ethernet switch platform designed for small to medium-size businesses (SMBs). Based on the Marvell Prestera family of packet processors and Marvell Alaska family of Gigabit transceivers, the Prestera 98DX3130 Ethernet switch and Alaska 88E1545 Gigabit Ethernet transceiver ICs are designed to drive down network Ethernet switch power consumption as much as 70 percent while reducing systems cost and meeting the bandwidth requirements of multimedia content.

The new ICs help reduce the energy bill for SMB by using Marvell's advanced power saving architecture to operate at less than half a watt per Gigabit port at maximum load, the company claimed. The devices deliver additional power reduction advantages when network traffic is reduced or idle. Both the Prestera 98DX313x family of Ethernet switches and Alaska 88E154x family of Gigabit Ethernet transceivers support the emerging IEEE 802.3az Energy-efficient-Ethernet draft standard.

To increase network bandwidth and lower the operational cost of network management, the Prestera 98DX3130 Ethernet switch also supports dedicated high speed ports between Ethernet switches. Capable of operating with either optical or copper media, the high-speed ports can achieve up to 10Gbps connectivity. Fast switch interconnects, also known as stacking, and embedded IPv6 capability helps reduce management overhead and network operating costs, the company said.

"Today's small-to-medium size businesses must scale their networks in terms of performance and number of addresses to support the relentlessly rising number of networked devices and still minimize power consumption and cost," said Michael Zimmerman, Marvell's senior director for Ethernet access. "The new Prestera 98DX3130 Ethernet switch is designed to address these new challenges by supporting twice the number of Ethernet addresses while offering Layer 3 routing and IPv6 forwarding, routing and multicasting. Combined with the Alaska 88E1545 transceiver, it delivers the industry's lowest power consumption in a highly compact form factor and optimized system solution."

Zimmerman said Marvell took a comprehensive system-level cost reduction approach by reducing the bill-of-materials (BoM) needed for the devices. Additional cost savings were achieved by utilizing the same software across the entire product family, regardless of port and speed configuration. Moreover, all products are compatible with the previous generation and family of Prestera 98DX3000 devices, he said. The company's Ethernet switch platform technologies will be showcased at the Interop 2010 conference in Las Vegas.