Communications and Technology Industry Research

The Linley Group, a provider of independent technology analysis for networking, communications, and consumer electronics semiconductors has announced its latest report, “A Guide to Ethernet Switch and PHY Chips, Fifth Edition.” The report shows data-center and aggregation switches to be the primary applications driving growth for 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) through 2009.

 

Indicating that the transition to 10GbE is still in its early stages, the report expects the10GbE switch shipments to reach more than one million ports in 2008. It also reveals that the Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) market has already consolidated around a handful of major vendors such as Solarflare, Aquantia and Fujitsu, and the startup activity is shifting to 10GbE.

 

“The next major technology transition is underway, as the Ethernet market evolves to support yet another 10x increase in data rates,” said Jag Bolaria, coauthor and senior analyst, The Linley Group.

 

Due to Ethernet evolution, incumbent vendors are becoming more competitive, which ultimately gives new players the opportunity to emerge and gain share. Linley Group’s new guide provides readers with the business and technical data with which they can take an informed decision about the companies, technologies and chips that are best for their designs.

 

“A Guide to Ethernet Switch and PHY Chips, Fifth Edition” gives important decision about several key segments in the networking market, including Gigabit Ethernet, 10GbE switch chips, GbE-over-Copper PHYs, 10GbE PHYs for copper and optical media, 10GBase-KR backplane transceivers and Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) controllers.

 

The report also shows that the infrastructure market for GbE silicon experienced fifteen percent growth in 2007. The Group expects the combined GbE/PHY revenue to grow about 12 percent in 2008, and also predicts a slow down in switch-plus-PHY revenue in 2009 and beyond.

 

In their report, The Linley Group says that a large number of servers will require connections with the transition of data center to 10GbE. Server usage and I/O bandwidth requirements are also expected to increase further as virtualization is rapidly becoming a mainstream technology. The research also shows LAN aggregation to be a critical application for 10GbE switches. All these trends are expected to increase the demand for higher port counts, Layer 3 switching, and security features.

 

The 10GbE switch chips, optical PHYs, and 10GBase-T adoption are all expected to make 10GbE a significant portion of overall Ethernet switch/PHY revenue next year.

 

Elaborating on the major vendors for these products, The Linley Group says that Broadcom, which holds the top position in supplying the Gigabit Ethernet components, has not secured its place as the dominant supplier for 10GbE products. Both Solarflare (News - Alert) and Aquantia are providing 10GBase-T PHYs with the lowest power dissipation, and Fujitsu is the first vendor to integrate 10Gbps serdes in its 10GbE switch. However the firm advises that companies seeking the top position will have to aggressively build a leading set of 10GbE components.