Mysticom ships transceiver for 10 Gig over copper

Chip vendors continue to push for high speeds and low costs, and the latest effort comes from Mysticom, which last month started shipping a transceiver to run 10 Gigabit Ethernet over copper cables.

The transceiver follows the draft standard IEEE 802.3ak, which addresses the version of copper 10 Gig that would use twinaxial cable and run over short distances. As I have mentioned before, that standard effort is in overdrive mode, and the group putting it together is already working on Version 4.1 of the draft.

Mysticom says its new integrated circuit extends the reach of the spec 60%, to 25 meters. IEEE 802.3ak is aiming for very short distances, for switch-to-switch or server-to-server connections, often in the same room. The Mysticom extension would offer a little more flexibility.

Mysticom says the chip represents “an alternative to expensive optical component based solutions” and reduces overall link costs by a dramatic 75%. Integrated forward error correction can reduce bit error rates and therefore extend the signaling distance, the company says.

The chip can also support 1X, 2X and 10G Fibre Channel, InfiniBand and Gigabit Ethernet.

While you wouldn’t go out and buy it yourself, your switch maker might. And the manufacturer can get the chip for $50 apiece, in large quantities.