10GBase-T: Is it really coming this t... EDN.com
24.08.09
10GBase-T: Is it absolutely coming this time? If silicon designers employ advanced process nodes to lower power, and if they can drub the signal-integrity issues, data-center managers could bypass both power and cost issues of NICs by purchasing motherboards with LAN-on-motherboard chips on them, providing 10Theme-T connectivity directly off the motherboard. By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor -- EDN, 8/24/2009
The arguments for 10GBase-T as make interconnect in data centers seem unassailable. Offering 10 Gbits/s raw bit rate, and Ethernet concordat at up to 100 m over Cat6A or Cat7 copper cable, 10GBase-T proposes lower cost than optical interconnect, greater wiring submissiveness than is possible with the 10m range of direct-attach copper, and the architectural elegance of having one tcp/ip interconnect organization from the blade all the way up to the WAN leaving the building complex. This last point seems to grow in importance as virtualization runs abounding through data centers.
From these points it would seem an obvious move for blade vendors to start slapping 10GBase-T silicon onto their motherboards, and for details centers to migrate quickly to the faster Ethernet standard. And that is just what industry analysts expected—two and a half years ago. Yet this year the whole market for 10GBase-T NICs appears to be only about $150 million, according to industry research. That's about the toll of one mid-range superyacht, just to keep things in perspective.
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