RapidIO switches target 5G, HPC, mobile edge computing

Integrated Device Technology Inc. (IDT) has announced its latest RapidIO switches that offer the ultra-low latency, high bandwidth and superior energy efficiency required for the development of 4G LTE Advanced (LTE-A) and 5G wireless infrastructure systems. The RXS switch family surpasses the latest RapidIO 10xN specification and boasts more than twice the performance of IDT's previous generation of switches.

In addition to 4G LTE-A and 5G, the switches are intended for applications with intensive bandwidth and low latency requirements such as mobile edge computing, high-performance computing and data analytics.

RapidIO switches are used to connect the computing components that comprise complex processing-intensive electronics systems—components such as SoCs, DSPs, FPGAs and custom ASICs. IDT's RXS family of switches exceeds the demanding bandwidth requirements of the RapidIO 10xN standard while maintaining the ultra-low latency for which RapidIO is known. These capabilities help ensure that data can move between components with extremely low latency and high energy efficiency.

The RXS2448 and RXS1632 switches offer ultra-low port-to-port latency approaching 100ns and a flexible, non-blocking fabric with switching performance of up to 600Gbit/s to deliver the most optimised 5G switching solution, stated the company. The switches are backward-compatible with existing RapidIO ecosystems, protecting previous hardware and software investments while accelerating time to market.

The 10xN RapidIO switches are geared for various markets where latency in moving data between components is a bottleneck to achieving the potential performance of a complex electronic system. These markets include mobile infrastructure (base stations, C-RAN, mobile-edge compute); data centre (data analytics, high-performance computing); aerospace, industrial control and defence.

The switches can have an immediate impact on existing systems by increasing aggregate backplane bandwidth with a simple upgrade of a system switching card and will offer designers and architects a compelling data movement solution for future systems such as 5G.

The RXS family is composed of the RXS2448, with 24 ports and 48 lanes, and the RXS1632, with 16 ports and 32 lanes. They support multi-standard (4G and 5G) BTS designs, the RXS switches have the flexibility to operate at the 10xN standard of 10Gbaud, but can also increase to a 25 per cent faster rate of 12.5Gbaud per lane, expected in a future release of the RapidIO standard.

The 100ns port-to-port switch latency translates to sub-200ns memory-to-memory latency between processing elements, critical for RTT and edge analytics in 5G systems. In addition, energy efficiency at 300mW per 10Gbit/s with tunable port and link characteristics with rates from 1.25Gbaud to 12.5Gbaud enable an optimal power consumption management strategy to deliver superior power-efficient designs, the company indicated.

The RXS2448 comes in a 33mm x 33mm 1024-FCBGA package with volume pricing at $119. The RXS1632 comes in a 29mm x29 mm 784-FCBGA package with volume pricing at $89. The prices translate to as low as 20 cents per gigabit of bandwidth.