Aquantia Solidifies Market Leadership With World's First 28nm 10GBASE-T PHY

Low power technology to fuel adoption of 10GE in cloud and corporate data centers

MILPITAS, CA – November 5, 2013 – Aquantia, the leading developer of High Speed Ethernet connectivity solutions, announced today that it has started sampling the world’s first 28nm 10GBASE-T PHY. The new device, which is the fourth generation of 10GBASE-T ICs from Aquantia, reduces the power consumption of its data center products to 1.5W per port while also integrating such features as Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE), 1588 and MACsec. The combination of power, performance and density of the new PHY extends Aquantia’s lead in the high-speed connectivity market. The delivery of the first 28nm 10GBASE-T PHY is the latest in a long series of engineering breakthroughs from Aquantia including the world’s first monolithic single-port, first dual-port, quad-port, and dual-port MAC/PHY devices.  

“Aquantia’s leadership is evidenced by its technology differentiation and drive for excellence, on top of its capacity to turn it into business success” says Faraj Aalaei, president & CEO of Aquantia. “Our engineering team has shown over and over again, that it is simply the best execution engine in our space. Our customers know that they can trust our ability to execute ahead of our competition and with stellar performance”.  

Aquantia’s ability to translate market-leading technology into business success is evidenced by winning Cisco’s New Emerging Technology Supplier Award and achieving the most deployed technology in the market.  

The advent of Aquantia’s 28nm generation PHY promises to further the penetration of the 10GBASE-T technology in cloud data centers, and fuel its adoption within the mass market of corporate data centers. This market segment commonly utilizes middle-of-row, end-of-row, or zoned approach for the location of first-layer Ethernet switching and requires cable distances of up to 100m for connecting to the rack servers. As a result, copper Ethernet (1000BASE-T) represents close to 100% of all GE connectivity today in corporate data center environments.  

The 28nm 10GBASE-T PHY generation is expected to experience a similar dynamic as it is deployed in next generation corporate data center servers and switches. Crehan Research projects that close to 40 million ports of 10GBASE-T will ship in the entire data center segment in the year 2017, 10 times more than in 2013, making it the fastest growing connectivity technology in the 10GE segment. In contrast, competing SFP+ technologies are predicted to stagnate in the next few years. Limitations such as too short a cable reach, interoperability issues and high costs result in SFP+ being assigned to a smaller percentage of the growing 10GE market.  

For high-density implementations, Aquantia’s 28nm quad-port 10GBASE-T IC is shipping in both 23mm x 23mm and 25mm x 25mm packages. The 23mm x 23mm version delivers the highest density required in high port-count fixed and modular Ethernet switches. The 25mm x 25mm package provides backward compatibility with Aquantia’s 40nm quad device allowing customers to migrate their existing designs to the lower-power 28nm version.

Aquantia’s 28nm generation complies with the following features:

• IEEE 802.3az-2010 Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE). EEE provides significant power savings through the implementation of Low-Power Idle (LPI) modes for a wide range of Ethernet transceivers. As power consumption in data centers continues to be a key focus in the industry, the advent of EEE and Aquantia’s implementation of EEE in its 28nm 10GBASE-T PHY delivers the best power performance metrics for 10GE connectivity
• IEEE 1588v2 Precision Time Protocol (PTP), which provides real-time clock synchronization on network infrastructures
• IEEE 802.1AE Media Access Control Security (MACsec), which enables authentication and encryption of packets between two end-to-end MACsec-capable devices on the network
• Advanced firmware which incorporates 3 generations of interoperability techniques with all 10GBASE-T products shipped to date

About Aquantia

Aquantia’s 10Gigabit Ethernet ICs are at the heart of cloud computing and large-scale data center deployments taking place today. This market segment is going through a very fast transition, with astounding growth in the total amount of compute power and the move to faster connectivity. This has in turn led to a new paradigm for 10Gigabit Ethernet all across the ecosystem. With its 10GBASE-T silicon products, Aquantia delivers to its OEM customers the most versatile and highest performance 10Gigabit Ethernet connectivity solution while providing lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Located in Silicon Valley, Aquantia is a venture-backed company, with strong tier-1 VCs and strategic investor support. For more information, visit www.aquantia.com.