Marvell launches SMB Ethernet solutions

LAS VEGAS, US: Marvell, a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, today introduced a new Gigabit Ethernet Switch Platform designed for small-to-medium size enterprises (SME) and businesses (SMB).

Based on the Marvell Prestera family of packet processors and Marvell Alaska family of Gigabit transceivers, the Prestera 98DX3130 Ethernet switch and Alaska 88E1545 Gigabit Ethernet transceiver ICs are designed to make Gigabit-level performance more affordable by driving down network Ethernet switch power consumption as much as 70 per cent while significantly reducing systems cost.

The new platform also addresses the growing need in Ethernet networks to support rapidly escalating bandwidth requirements of multimedia content as the number of networked devices skyrockets.

“Today's small-to-medium size businesses must scale their networks in terms of performance and number of addresses to support the relentlessly rising number of networked devices and still minimize power consumption and cost," said Michael Zimmerman, senior director for Ethernet Access at Marvell Semiconductor Inc.

"The new Prestera 98DX3130 Ethernet switch is designed to address these new challenges by supporting twice the number of Ethernet addresses while offering Layer 3 routing and IPv6 forwarding, routing and multicasting. Combined with the Alaska 88E1545 transceiver, it delivers the industry's lowest power consumption in a highly compact form factor and optimized system solution." 

The new ICs reduce the energy bill for SMB/SMEs by using Marvell's advanced power saving architecture to operate at less than half a watt per Gigabit port at maximum load, said the release. The new devices deliver additional power reduction advantages when network traffic is reduced or idle. Both the Prestera 98DX313x family of Ethernet switches and Alaska 88E154x family of Gigabit Ethernet transceivers support the emerging IEEE 802.3az Energy-efficient-Ethernet draft standard.

To increase network bandwidth and lower the operational cost of network management, the Prestera 98DX3130 Ethernet switch also supports dedicated high speed ports between Ethernet switches. Capable of operating with either optical or copper media, the high speed ports can achieve up to 10Gbps connectivity without the costs traditionally associated with 10G links. Fast switch interconnects, also known as stacking, and embedded IPv6 capability reduce management overhead and network operating costs.