Fulcrum Microsystems and KeyEye Communications today announced they will demonstrate a 10-Gigabit Ethernet interconnect solution that utilizes Fulcrum’s FocalPoint low-latency 24-port switch chip and KeyEye’s KX1001, a single-chip 10-Gigabit Ethernet Category 6 transceiver. This solution addresses high-performance, cost-sensitive data center applications such as cluster or blade computing interconnects. The demonstration will be held at Interop (May 2-4, Las Vegas) in Fulcrum’s booth (#126). The demonstration will use Fulcrum’s FocalPoint evaluation platform, a switch system that allows networking system manufacturers to quickly test the capabilities and performance of the device and begin software development for their own systems. The FocalPoint evaluation platform contains 12 CX4 copper connectors, two re-timed and powered CX4 modules for copper and integrated fiber links, and two each of SFP, XFP and X2 MSA form-factor modules for optical and copper transceivers. The KeyEye KX1001 Category 6 transceiver is integrated into a Category 6 X2 module that plugs into the platform. “We want to demonstrate that there’s a growing ecosystem for 10-Gigabit data center solutions that offers not only the latency and performance levels necessary, but also the cabling options that meet the needs of data center managers,” said Mike Zeile, vice president of marketing for Fulcrum. “The combination of FocalPoint with KeyEye’s transceiver makes a compelling solution for cost-effective large-scale fat tree interconnect architectures.” “With the KX1001, data centers now have a lower cost Category 6 cabling alternative for short reach 10-Gigabit Ethernet applications,” said Fred Lancia, vice president of sales and product marketing for KeyEye. “The combination of the FocalPoint FM2224 and the KeyEye KX1001 transceiver offers a low power, low-latency solution over cost-effective structured copper cabling for high-performance applications.” With 24-ports of wire-speed 10-Gigabit Ethernet and less than 200ns of latency, the FocalPoint FM2224 offers the density and performance necessary for Ethernet-based interconnect applications. The low latency, along with a rich set of data center features, means FocalPoint can enable the build-out of multi-tier fat tree systems with thousands of non-blocking ports, while maintaining sub-microsecond latency from any port to any other port in the network. KeyEye has pioneered single-chip 10-Gigabit copper media transceivers for both Ethernet and InfiniBand. The KX1001 is targeted at Ethernet and other 10-Gigabit interconnect applications. Consuming less than 3.7 watts of power, with latency less than 150ns, the KX1001 device can be used to create Category 6 X2, XPAK, XFP, and XENPAK modules, which can replace optical Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) solutions at a fraction of the cost.