A Single-Chip, 10-Gigabit Ethernet Switch LSI for Energy-Efficient Blade Servers

The use of virtualization technology has been increasing in the IT industry to consolidate servers and reduce power consumption significantly. As a virtualization platform, a large-scale blade server is suitable because it can hold a dozen blades in a chassis with well managed configuration, enabling easy provisioning. To realize an energy-efficient blade server, the network component must deliver both high performance and reduced power consumption. We developed the fifth generation single-chip 10GbE switch LSI that supports 26 10GbE ports with built-in 10 Gb/s serial back plane interfaces. Using this highly integrated switch LSI, we also developed a single-wide 10GbE switch blade for the blade server. The switch blade delivers 100 percent more performance per watt than other 10GbE switch blades in the industry. This paper describes the features of the switch LSI, the high-speed IO circuit of its built-in interfaces and 10GbE switch blade.