Fujitsu drives deeper into ATM market

Electronic News, April 8, 1996 by Crista Hardie

San Jose, Calif.--Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc. (FMI) unveiled a second generation asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) backbone device--the first in a planned series of upgraded ATM products made using FMI's 0.5-micron CMOS process technology. The MB86681 self-routing switch element (SRE-L), revealed last month in an exclusive preview (EN, March 4), is designed for 155-megabit-per-second ATM switching hubs, routers and network access controllers.

FMI's announced ATM strategy remains focused on the 155M/ps standard for now, the company said. Reinforcing that goal, the company took its earlier 155M/ps SRE device, the MB86680 (EN, Aug. 30, 1993) and souped up the features, including increased output buffers, Early Packet Discard (EPD) capability and enhanced flow control.

Anticipating a June availability date, FMI last week debuted the MB86681 at the Networld Interop trade exhibit in Las Vegas. The device will be packaged in a 208-pin LPFP, priced at $75 each in production volumes.

Designed for matrix interconnection, the MB86681 includes separate 8-bit z input and output ports operating at up to 25MHz. For larger capacity switches, the SRE-L matrices can be connected into Delta switch topologies.

Internal output buffers with a 146-cell capacity can be divided into a 121-cell low-priority queue and a 25-cell high-priority queue. A control bit in the routine tag determines cell priority and an enhanced flow control feature uses selective cell discard.

"With its large output buffers and sophisticated flow control capability, the SRE-L enables a significant improvement in high-end ATM systems by reducing queue delay and enhancing overall system efficiency," said Barry Marsh, director of Enterprise Products for FMI.

FMI said it will continue to provide its first generation ATM products, even as the new devices are introduced. Other planned rollouts include a second generation SAR chip, a Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) framer, as well as a single-chip network interface card (NIC) combining the SAR and framer. Samples of the planned devices are expected within six months, the company said.