MANHASSET, NY -- Xilinx Inc. has begun initial shipments of the Virtex-7 H580T FPGA, a single-chip solution for addressing key Nx100G and 400G line card applications and functions.
The part uses its stacked silicon interconnect technology in the 3-D heterogeneous FPGA which is built on TSMC’s 28nm process. The Virtex-7 H580T FPGA features up to sixteen 28 Gbps and seventy-two 13.1 Gbps transceivers.
Xilinx claims other FPGAs are able to integrate only a fourth of the number of 28 Gbps channels.
The heterogeneous implementation of Virtex-7 HT devices also enables Xilinx to make independent technology choices for the core FPGA and 28 Gbps transceiver die, which avoids burdening the FPGA with high leakage transistors that waste system power and bring no benefit to computation tasks. Having 28 Gbps transceivers on silicon separate from the core FPGA fabric further allows for superior noise isolation, enabling best overall signal integrity and system margin, as well as improved productivity for design closure and faster time to market, according to Xilinx.
“Xilinx has clearly hit an industry milestone with this device because it allows makers of networking systems to easily overcome the challenges they face to enable more bandwidth,” said Chris Bergey, Vice President of Marketing at silicon photonics leader Luxtera Inc., a maker of 4x28 Gbps single chip silicon photonic transceivers, in a statement.
Effectively upgrading networks to handle exponential growth in data usage requires power and port density improvements in optical modules while reducing cost per bit. Driven by the migration to CFP2 and, in the future, CFP4 optical modules, Virtex-7 HT devices enable that capability for communication equipment vendors designing Nx100G and 400G line cards.
“Competing ASSP-based solutions will comprise five devices, will remain unavailable for more than a year, will consume at least 40 percent additional power and will cost 50 percent more,” claimed Mark Gustlin, System Architect for Wired Communications at Xilinx.
The upcoming Virtex-7 H870T device is also 400GE ready and will be able to support future 400GE modules that require16x25 Gbps interfaces.