Microchip announces Terabit-Scale Ethernet PHY with MACsec

Microchip Technology introduced its META-DX1 family of Ethernet Physical-Layer (PHY) devices that integrates, onto a single chip, Ethernet ports from 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) to 400 GbE, flexible Ethernet (FlexE), Media Access Control Security (MACsec) link encryption and nanosecond timestamping accuracy at terabit capacity.

The META-DX1, which was developed by Microchip's Microsemi division, enables line cards to quadruple in capacity – from 3.6 terabits per second (Tbps) to 14.4 Tbps with 36 ports of 400 GbE or 144 ports of 100 GbE – while supporting key features needed by service providers.


The META-DX1 family uniquely combines MACsec and FlexE into one solution. The META-DX1 MACsec engine secures traffic leaving the data center or enterprise premises, and FlexE enables both cloud and telecom service providers to meet capacity requirements while reducing fiber plant capital expenditures by optimally configuring links beyond today’s fixed-rate Ethernet so they can use low-cost, high-volume optics.

High-performance timestamping enables nanosecond-level accuracy on every port. This will support timing requirements of 5G mobile base stations.

The META-DX1 also brings a flexible crosspoint switching capability that makes it easier for OEMs to navigate the market transition from 25 Gbps NRZ and 56 Gbps PAM-based architectures by enabling them to support a single design or SKU for both 100 GbE (QSFP28) and 400 GbE (QSFP-DD) optics.

“The META-DX1 family was purpose-built to unify into a single hardware and software offering the broad range of capabilities service providers need in their network buildouts that connect enterprise and data center services to the cloud and emerging 5G applications,” said Babak Samimi, vice president for Microchip’s Communications business unit.  “By delivering the highest-density Ethernet ports coupled with MACsec, FlexE and the nanosecond packet timing performance needed for 5G, we’ve introduced an innovative Ethernet connectivity platform for telecom and cloud service provider routers and switches, as well as optical transport equipment.”

Initial META-DX1 family members will sample during Q3 2019.

https://www.microchip.com/
https://www.microsemi.com/META-DX1

Microsemi and Acacia collaborate on Flexible Rate Optical at up to 600G

Thursday, January 24, 2019  Acacia, Microsemi  

Microsemi and Acacia Communications announced interoperability between Microchip’s DIGI-G5 Optical Transport Network (OTN) processor and Acacia’s AC1200 Coherent Module.

Microsemi's DIGI-G5 OTN processor supports FlexE and OTUCn protocols, enabling new terabit scale line cards with flexible rate optical interfaces for packet optical transport platforms. Acacia's AC1200 modules support for metro and data center interconnect networks. Specifically, while the DIGI-G5 processes client traffic into OTN, the 1.2T AC1200—powered by Acacia’s Pico digital signal processor (DSP) ASIC—on the line card will enable the OTN connections over two 600G tunable DWDM wavelengths with flexible transmission three-dimensional (3D) shaping features. These features, which include fractional quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and adaptive baud rate optimize transmission reach and capacity, approaching theoretical limits on a wide range of network configurations, in a power efficient manner.

The companies said their collaboration enables the first flexible rate system architectures with an established ecosystem to support the market’s transition to 200G, 400G, 600G and flexible rate OTN networks built with new Flexible Ethernet (FlexE) and OTUCn protocols. FlexE was designed to provide up to 30 percent greater bandwidth efficiency compared to traditional Ethernet link aggregation (LAG) with fewer limitations. Combining it with OTUCn and tunable fractional dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) transmission brings service providers the potential to improve their OTN network capacity by up to 70 percent.

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Ethernity delivers Programmable Universal Edge Platform

Ethernity Networks introduced its ENET Universal Edge Platform (UEP) network appliance, an edge-optimized low-space, low-power FPGA-based programmable device with up to 40 Gbps of networking capacity and 10 Gbps of IPSec security performance.

Ethernity's UEP appliance is powered by a dual-core ARM processor that handles the control plane. It can be used as a standalone high-end Network Interface Device that offers rich routing and IPSec security functionalities. The ENET UEP contains an interchangeable mezzanine card that enables the appliance to be designed for XGS-PON connectivity for placement at cellular base stations, to support G.fast for distribution point unit and multi-dwelling unit deployment, or to support Internet of Things (IoT) aggregation elements, for example, a radio modem for the IoT sensor network.

The main board of the ENET UEP comes with two SFP+ interfaces that can be equipped with 10GbE or XGS-PON transceivers, and an FPGA equipped with Ethernity’s ENET Flow Processor, implementing a complete Carrier Ethernet switch, hierarchical QoS, router, IPSec, and optional XGS-PON MAC.

The default ENET UEP offers 8 x 1Gb RJ45 ports in the mezzanine card, but can be designed to support G.fast, enterprise Power over Ethernet (PoE) solutions, radio interfaces, or additional connectivity via GbE/10GbE. The ENET UEP also comes with a unique PCIe connection to any standard server, enabling it to be used for NFVI acceleration.

“After many years of delivering Carrier Ethernet over low-cost, low-power FPGAs, it is exciting to have customers requesting that we apply our field-proven expertise and patented technology to a comprehensive solution for the network edge,” said Shavit Baruch, VP of R&D at Ethernity Networks. “The ENET UEP is the perfect application for our 5G, mobile backhaul and Ethernet access products as a complement to our customers’ solutions in the central office.”

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Ekinops acquires OTN tech fom Padtec

Ekinops agreed to acquire an OTN switching platform developed by Padtec, an optical communications system manufacturer based in Brazil, for €10 million in cash. The deal brings an experienced R&D team comprised of 25 engineers based in Campinas, near Sao Paulo (Brazil). Brazilian operations will be overseen by Jean-Luc Pamart, co-founder of Ekinops and VP of R&D for optical transport.

With this acquisition, Ekinops expects to be able to offer a complete OTN/DWDM solution for optical networks from early 2020, enabling flexible data traffic and support for the evolution of data speeds and protocols transmitted over 200-400G modulated optical wavelengths, eventually reaching 1 Tbps.

Ekinops plans to carry out a capital increase by private placement over the coming weeks, for an amount capped at 10% of the capital stock.

Padtec CEO Manuel Andrade said:

"The acquisition of the OTN-Switch Platform by a globally recognized company such as Ekinops is a validation of the capability of Padtec's engineers to develop state-of-the-art technologies deployable worldwide. Additionally, we are happy to enter into commercial agreements with Ekinops that will enable Padtec to offer the OTN-Switch on an OEM basis to our customer base in Latin America. This is a clear win-win agreement for both companies."

Didier Brédy, Chairman & CEO of Ekinops, made the following comments:

"The OTN technology developed by Padtec is particularly innovative and will enable Ekinops to take a major technological and commercial leap forward in order to advance its position with leading telecom operators. The agreements with Padtec, the leading Latin American manufacturer and supplier of optical networking equipment, will also allow Padtec to source the OTN products it needs from Ekinops. This major strategic acquisition means that Ekinops can target to triple its sales of optical transport products within 5 years."

http://www.padtec.com.br/en/
https://www.ekinops.com/

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Gogo envisions air-to-ground 5G network for Aviation

Gogo plans to build an air-to-ground 5G network in North America for aviation.

The new air-to-ground (ATG) network will be designed for use on business aviation aircraft, commercial regional jets and smaller mainline jets operating within the contiguous United States and Canada.

The 5G network will leverage Gogo's existing infrastructure of more than 250 towers and will use unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4GHz range, along with a proprietary modem and advanced beamforming technology.

Gogo said its 5G infrastructure will support all spectrum types (licensed, shared, unlicensed) and bands (mid, high, low), and will allow Gogo to take advantage of new advances in technology as they are developed.

https://concourse.gogoair.com/gogo-to-launch-5g-network-for-aviation/

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IEEE restricts Huawei employees from peer review

The IEEE will restrict employees of Huawei Technologies from certain activities that are not generally open to the public, including certain aspects of the publication peer review and editorial process.

The IEEE said the new policy is due to the blacklisting of Huawei by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

The IEEE noted that employees of Huawei "can continue to participate in individual membership, corporate membership and voting rights; subscribe to and access IEEE’s digital library and other publication products; submit technical papers for publication; participate in and present at IEEE-sponsored meetings and conferences, and may sponsor and accept an IEEE award."

https://www.ieee.org/about/news/2019/compliance-with-us-trade-restrictions.html

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Softbank picks Ericsson and Nokia for 5G

SoftBank Corp. awarded major 5G contracts to Ericsson and Nokia, marking a significant change in its preferred vendors. Huawei has been a supplier of 4G infrastructure for Softbank.

Ericsson was selected by SoftBank as a primary 5G vendor for the deployment of a multi-band 5G network in Japan following a series of successful joint proof-of-concept activities that began in 2015. Under a new agreement, Ericsson will provide SoftBank with radio access network equipment, including products from the Ericsson Radio System portfolio. This will enable SoftBank to launch 5G services on their newly granted 3.9-4.0 GHz and 29.1-29.5 GHz bands for 5G New Radio (NR).

Nokia also confirmed that it was selected to supply its 5G AirScale solution to Softbank for deployment across Japan. Nokia's 5G AirScale supports multiple frequencies, in both distributed and centralized architectures, giving SoftBank tremendous flexibility in its network evolution. Nokia has also been a long term supplier to Softbank. Nokia also noted that it now has 38 5G commercial contracts, including 20 with named customers.

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Palo Alto Networks to acquire Twistlock and Puresec

Palo Alto Networks announced two acquisitions: Twistlock, a specialist in container security, and PureSec, a leader in serverless security.

Twistlock, which is based in Portland, Oregon, combines vulnerability management, compliance, and runtime defense for cloud-native applications and workloads. The company serves more than 290 customers, with more than a quarter on the Fortune 100 list. Twistlock co-founders, Ben Bernstein and Dima Stopel, will join Palo Alto Networks. Palo Alto Networks will pay approximately $410 million in cash to acquire Twistlock. Investors in Twistlock included ICONIQ Capital, YL Ventures, TenEleven, Rally Ventures, Polaris Partners and Dell Technologies Capital. The company raised about $63 million in total funding over several rounds.

"Our vision for a cloud-native security platform is a natural fit with Palo Alto Networks cloud strategy. We have liked-minded teams, and we’re looking forward to accelerating our ability to serve customers and partners on their cloud-native journey together," stated Ben Bernstein, co-founder and CEO, Twistlock.

PureSec, which was founded in 2016 and is based in Tel Aviv, specializes in serverless security. The company provides end-to-end security for serverless functions that cover vulnerability management, access permissions, and runtime threats. PureSec co-founders, Shaked Zin, Ory Segal, and Avi Shulman, will join Palo Alto Networks. Terms of the PureSec transaction were not disclosed.

Palo Alto Networks said the acquisitions will further advance the company’s ability to offer the most complete and comprehensive cloud security suite in all critical areas of cloud security.

"Today marks another exciting step forward in our commitment to offering our customers the industry's most complete cloud security offering. We believe that our acquisition of these leading companies will significantly enhance our ability to be the cybersecurity partner of choice for our customers, while expanding our capabilities and strengthening our Prisma cloud security strategy," stated Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks.

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Palo Alto Networks debuts "Prisma" Cloud Security Suite

Palo Alto Networks unveiled its Prisma cloud security suite to provide business customers with access, data protection, and application security.

The Prisma suite consists of four key components:

• Prisma Access secures access to the cloud for branch offices and mobile users anywhere in the world with a scalable, cloud-native architecture, blending enterprise-grade security with a globally scalable network. It will soon run on Google Cloud Platform (GCP™), extending the service to more than 100 locations for an even faster and more localized experience. Customers will also have access to a streamlined cloud management user interface (UI) that enables rapid onboarding of branches and users. In addition, Prisma Access will include capabilities specifically designed for service providers to enable the rapid provisioning of secure outbound internet connectivity for their customers.
• Prisma Public Cloud provides continuous visibility, security, and compliance monitoring across public multi-cloud deployments. Powered by machine learning, it correlates data and assesses risk across the cloud environment. Starting today, customers can further reduce their attack surface early in the development cycle through a "shift left" approach to security. With the ability to detect vulnerabilities and fix improper configurations in customers' infrastructure-as-code templates, developers can reduce risk without sacrificing agility. 
• Prisma SaaS is a multi-mode cloud access security broker (CASB) service that safely enables SaaS application adoption. It provides advanced capabilities in risk discovery, adaptive access control, data loss prevention, compliance assurance, data governance, user behavior monitoring, and advanced threat prevention. New integrations will bring improved administration experience across IT-sanctioned and IT-unsanctioned SaaS applications with unified visibility and management.
• VM-Series is the virtualized form factor of the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall that can be deployed in private and public cloud computing environments, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), GCP, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and VMware NSX. The VM-Series is also enhanced through infrastructure-as-code automation for deployment and configuration, which reduces complexity for customers.

http://www.paloaltonetworks.com/prisma

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South Africa picks ADVA for nationwide research and education network

The South African National Research Network (SANReN), an initiative of the South African Department of Science and Technology hosted by the Council for Science and Industrial Research (CSIR), has selected ADVA's FSP 3000 platform in combination with ADVA ALM fiber monitoring technology to create a nationwide research and education (R&E) network.

The network, which features ADVA’s dynamic ROADM technology and QuadFlex line cards, will bring high-bandwidth connectivity to universities and research institutions across South Africa.

“With this deployment, we’re empowering scientists and academics across the country to go further than ever before. Such an enormous increase in broadband capacity will enable them to push the boundaries of discovery, utilize advanced applications and collaborate with peers in innovative new ways,” said Leon Staphorst, director, SANReN.

http://www.advaoptical.com

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Marvell sells Wi-Fi business to NXP for $1.76 billion

NXP will acquire Marvell’s Wi-Fi Connectivity business for $1.76 billion in cash.

The deal includes Marvell’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology portfolios and related assets. The business employs approximately 550 people worldwide and generated roughly $300 million in revenue in Marvell’s fiscal 2019.

NXP said the acquisition enables it to offer a full range of wireless connectivity solutions including WiFi 4, 5, 6 and Bluetooth/ BLE combo along with its flagship edge computing platforms. including I.MX, Layerscape, Kinetis, LPC and the newly introduced RT Crossover Processors.

“We are excited to be able to combine Marvell’s world-class connectivity with NXP’s industry leading embedded processing, we can offer our customer base the broadest portfolio of Edge solutions which includes tailored security and a full suite of wireless connectivity spanning WiFi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, Thread and NFC,” said Richard Clemmer, chief executive officer of NXP.

“NXP has built a broad consumer footprint and an optimized platform for IoT applications, making it an ideal home for our innovative Wi-Fi technology and team,” said Matt Murphy, president and CEO of Marvell. “At the same time, this transaction yields a premium valuation and substantially higher economic return for Marvell shareholders while accelerating our transformation into a leading infrastructure supplier spanning 5G, data center, enterprise and automotive Ethernet applications.”

“We are excited to be able to combine Marvell’s world-class connectivity with NXP’s industry leading embedded processing, we can offer our customer base the broadest portfolio of Edge solutions which includes tailored security and a full suite of wireless connectivity spanning WiFi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, Thread and NFC,” said Richard Clemmer, chief executive officer of NXP. “I am delighted this world-class team with the right set of complementary connectivity technologies is joining NXP, enabling us to deliver on our commitment to provide Secure Connections for the Smarter World.”

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New PCI Express 5.0 spec handles 32 gigatransfers per sec

A newly released PCI Express (PCIe) 5.0 specification reaches 32 GT/s transfer rates, while maintaining low power and backwards compatibility with previous technology generations.

PCIe 5.0 Specification Highlights

• Delivers 32 GT/s raw bit rate and up to 128 GB/s via x16 configuration
• Leverages and adds to the PCIe 4.0 specification and its support for higher speeds via extended tags and credits
• Implements electrical changes to improve signal integrity and mechanical performance of connectors
• Includes new backwards compatible CEM connector targeted for add-in cards
• Maintains backwards compatibility with PCIe 4.0, 3.x, 2.x and 1.x
• The new specification increases performance in the high-performance markets including artificial intelligence, machine learning, gaming, visual computing, storage and networking.
• 
  

“New data-intensive applications are driving demand for unprecedented levels of performance,” said Al Yanes, PCI-SIG Chairman and President. “Completing the PCIe 5.0 specification in 18 months is a major achievement, and it is due to the commitment of our members who worked diligently to evolve PCIe technology to meet the performance needs of the industry. The PCIe architecture will continue to stand as the defacto standard for high performance I/O for the foreseeable future.”

“For 27 years, the PCI-SIG has continually delivered new versions of I/O standards that enable designers to accommodate the never-ending increases in bandwidth required for next generation systems, while preserving investments in prior generation interfaces and software,” noted Nathan Brookwood, research fellow at Insight 64. “Over that period, peak bandwidth has increased from 133 MB/second (for the first 32-bit parallel version) to 32 GB/second (for the V4.0 by16 serial version), a 240X improvement. Wow! The new PCIe 5.0 standard doubles that again to 64 GB/second. Wow! We have come to take this increased performance for granted, but in reality, it takes a coordinated effort across many members of the PCI-SIG to execute these transitions so seamlessly.”

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Palo Alto Networks hits quarterly revenue of $726.6

Palo Alto Networks reported revenue of $726.6 million for its fiscal third quarter 2019, ended April 30, 2019, up 28 percent year over year. GAAP net loss for the fiscal third quarter 2019 was $20.2 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, compared with GAAP net loss of $40.4 million, or $0.44 per diluted share, for the fiscal third quarter 2018.

Non-GAAP net income for the fiscal third quarter 2019 was $130.1 million, or $1.31 per diluted share, compared with non-GAAP net income of $100.0 million, or $1.04 per diluted share, for the fiscal third quarter 2018.

"Our team continues to execute on our plan and deliver robust results. The excitement around our new products is incredible and will only grow once customers have a chance to experience it for themselves," said Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks. "Both Twistlock and PureSec will be important additions to helping protect our customers' journey to the cloud. Combining their capabilities with Prisma, our leading cloud security suite, is a huge win for all of our customers."

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AWS intros an ML services for text/data extraction

AWS introduced a fully managed service that uses machine learning to automatically extract text and data, including from tables and forms, in virtually any document without the need for manual review, custom code, or machine learning experience.

Amazon Textract identifies the contents of fields in forms, information stored in tables, and the context in which the information is presented, such as a name or social security number from a tax form or the product SKU or quantity in a warehouse from an inventory report.

The power of Amazon Textract is that it accurately extracts text and structured data from virtually any document with no machine learning experience required. Subsequently, developers can analyze and query the extracted text and data using our database and analytics services like Amazon Elasticsearch Service, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon Athena and integrate with other machine learning services like Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Comprehend Medical, Amazon Translate, and Amazon SageMaker to help customers derive deeper meaning from the extracted text and data,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President, Amazon Machine Learning. “

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