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Vitesse Lowers Cost of Bandwidth by 2X with Smart-LINK 10G Chipset

2/27/2004 - Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: VTSS), announced the introduction of the Smart-LINK^TM family of physical layer (PHY) ICs designed to significantly reduce the cost of data transmission in module and line card applications. System designers of optical and copper-based modules now have the ability to electronically compensate for link impairments through Vitesse’s technological advancements in PHYs, resulting in as much as a 2x cost reduction in short and long reach applications. The chipset is compliant with modules and line cards directed at OC-192/STM64 SONET/SDH, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Fibre Channel applications, and is the only solution that bundles the receiver, transmitter and forward error correction (FEC) capabilities into one verified design.

Smart-LINK reduces overall system costs and increases bandwidth value by supplying state-of-the-art, real-time link optimization electronics into low-cost, integrated circuits that optimize link performance to enable the use of lower cost components, extend performance reach relative to existing technology, and replace optics with lower cost copper links. More specifically, the 2x cost advantage is a result of using:

• EAM modulators in place of more expensive LiNbO3 modulators
• Conventional laser drivers in lieu of more expensive high output drivers
• Electrical XFP/XENPAK/X2 modules in place of optical modules at distances up to 30m
• Integrated circuit technology that eliminates expensive DCF components

Smart-LINK: Technological Benefits
System designers benefit from this complete solution by utilizing the immediate availability of a verified reference design and speeding their time-to-market. Smart-LINK ICs provide multiple monitoring functions and filters, which allow system components to adapt and operate at higher performance margins that significantly exceed current implementations. For example, a Smart-LINK receiver can be used to open up the impaired data eye, adjust to the optimal sample point, optionally report on the health of the eye (i.e., the Q-Factor), or even provide a plot data of the received data eye, and finally perform an optional high-gain error correction. On the transmit side, a Smart-LINK product can pre-distort the output signal to compensate for pre-determined channel characteristics.

The following features are standard offerings in the Smart-LINK family: Vitesse’s patented V-Scope^TM non-destructive eye monitoring for real-time eye mapping, quality BER monitoring, signal equalization, receiver adaptive sampling, data error correction and transmission signal pre-conditioning.

The Smart-LINK Family of Products
The Smart-LINK product family includes highly integrated laser and cable drivers, CDRs, Transimpedance Amplifiers (TIAs), SerDes and FEC ICs. The first Smart-LINK ICs from Vitesse’s comprehensive roadmap are available now. They include the following:

• VSC7992 10.7 Gb/s RZ or NRZ EML Driver with differential outputs
• VSC8237 10.7 Gb/s Dual CDR with copper cable equalization
• VSC8477 9.9 to 11.3 Gb/s 16-bit Transceiver IC with equalization, data eye monitor and sampling optimization
• VSC6134 10 Gb/s Digital Wrapper FEC (G.709/G.975) with STS-192/10GbE performance monitoring and optional enhanced FEC
• VSC7999 10.7 to 12.5 Gb/s Transimpedance Amplifier with photocurrent monitor and Input Slicing Adjust for dispersion compensation

“The Smart-LINK family advances the capabilities of electronic dispersion compensation. Designed to be completely autonomous, adaptable to changing link characteristics, and seamlessly integrated, these devices enable a new level of price/performance in communication systems,” said Tony Conoscenti, director of product marketing for Vitesse’s Transport Division. “Using advanced electronics to solve complicated optical issues is a technological inflexion point for the industry. Our customers are embracing this shift and already have proven results in real world applications.”

Smart-LINK: Performance Results
At the network system vendor level, the technology advances available in the Smart-LINK ICs enable longer spans between regeneration nodes, a reduction in the number of high-cost optical compensation devices within a given span length, and the use of lower cost transmission modules. Recent Smart-LINK performance results already proven include:

• Greater than 120km uncompensated optical transmission at data rates up to 11.3 Gb/s
• Serial 10 Gb/s transmission over 30 meters of copper cable
• 10 Gb/s ultra long haul optical transmission at reaches greater than 3000km
• Serial or parallel data transmission over 300 meters of legacy fiber at 10 Gb/s

Pricing and Availability
All products are available now, priced separately or bundled. For more information on Smart-LINK technology and products visit the Vitesse Technologies Center at www.vitesse.com/smart-link. Vitesse will demonstrate Smart-LINK products and present a technical paper on 10 Gb/s long-haul fiber links in conjunction with the University of Southern California (Session FN1 on February 27, 2004) during the Optical Fiber Communications Conference in Los Angeles, Calif., February 22 – 27, 2004.

About the Transport Products Division
Since the introduction of our first SONET SerDes ICs nearly 15 years ago, the Transport Products Division at Vitesse has been a leading supplier of optoelectronics and physical layer devices for OEMs around the globe. With emphasis on the development of products to lower the cost of bandwidth for applications from 1 Gb/s to 12.5 Gb/s, Vitesse offers the industry’s broadest product portfolio. As the world leader in transport ICs, Vitesse components are used in a wide array of products from industry leading OEMs including Alcatel, Avanex, Bookham, Cisco, Huawei, Infineon, JDS Uniphase, Lucent, Marconi, Nortel, OpNext, and many others.

Smart-LINK is the trademark of Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation.

About Vitesse
Vitesse is a leading designer and manufacturer of innovative silicon solutions and optical devices used in the networking, communications and storage industries worldwide. Vitesse works to specifically address the requirements of system designers and OEMs by providing high-performance, integrated products that are ideally suited for use in Enterprise, Access, Metro and Core applications. Additional company and product information is available at www.vitesse.com.

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