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Texas Instruments 0.18-micron TImeline Technology Delivers a Comprehensive Roadmap for Networking

In an increasingly networked society, the demand for bandwidth is growing at a tremendous pace. Businesses and individuals are increasing their use of applications such as multimedia, videoconferencing and the World Wide Web -- all of which must move huge quantities of data.

The challenge for the networking industry is to develop products that will serve up this bandwidth. These products also must meet the industry's demands for rapid development and the ability to pack more bandwidth into a smaller space for installation in already crowded wiring closets.

These needs can be met incrementally by design improvements at the card or system level. However, order of magnitude improvements in network performance and size reduction are possible only with improvements at the chip level -- integrating more bandwidth and functionality on a single chip.

This vision of chip-level capabilities is delivered by the new 0.18-micron TImeline Technology from Texas Instruments (TI). TI improves product performance today and provides a comprehensive roadmap for reaching the Gigabit- and Terabit-level performance required by emerging network applications.

New Levels of Networking Performance

The TI 0.18-micron technology can pack 125 million transistors onto a single piece of silicon, bringing significant advances in integration and performance to network applications. For example, many common and essential networking functions can be embedded in one piece of silicon instead of today's OEM implementation in multiple chips, full cards or entire boxes.

This new technology builds upon the advances of the TI ThunderNET architecture, which provides a wide variety of single-chip networking solutions. Together, the 0.18-micron and ThunderNET technologies reflect TI's experience and architectural expertise for delivering card- or box-level functionality on a chip.

Key Applications Include Switching, Routers, Internet

With the TI 0.18-micron technology, networking product OEMs can integrate, with a single chip, all of the functions available today on a full LAN switching system. Fewer components result in simpler design requirements, a smaller system footprint and lower costs. The 0.18-micron technology also increases performance through higher integration of switching functions and improves scalability through increased port density.

In addition, the TI 0.18-micron technology can be used to create "router-on-a-chip" products by integrating LAN and wide-area network (WAN) functions. To serve their exploding number of individual subscribers, Internet service providers can benefit from the substantial reductions in equipment footprints enabled by this integration, which can be described as "access in a soft drink can."

Other improvements in network performance are made possible with this new technology. Gigabit and Terabit networking can be realized in silicon, along with integration of advanced traffic management and flow-control techniques, as well as network management functions.

As equipment OEMs continue to blend routing and switching functions at all levels of the network, the 0.18-micron technology will easily enable combined switched network and routing silicon architectures for even greater improvements in network performance. In addition, management information systems (MIS) managers will realize a simplified network infrastructure, seamless adaptation of multiple network protocols and the potential for virtual network management.

Extending the TImeline Architecture

TI is currently conducting several research and testing efforts to extend and validate the TImeline Technology. A joint project involving TI and Stanford University is using the 0.18-micron technology to develop Terabit-speed Ethernet switching. The first product to result from the project will be a small, high-bandwidth packet switch with an aggregate 320Gbps for use in a high performance ATM switch, the core of an Internet router or as a fast multiprocessor interconnect. By employing unique scheduling algorithms for unicast and multicast traffic, the switch will have a maximum thoughput of close to 100 percent. To verify the performance of products based on the TImeline Technology with a wide range of network applications, TI relies on the Network Technology Center (NTC). The NTC validates standard product and core designs prior to silicon prototyping, enabling customers to bring their products to market faster.

With the 0.18-micron TImeline Technology, TI is introducing a new roadmap for product developers, one that will enable them to easily reach the next level of high-power networking. And this new level will also benefit businesses and individual users, as they enjoy improved performance for their high-demand, networked applications.

Trademark:
ThunderNET is a trademark of Texas Instruments Incorporated.