Bristol-based chip firm Phyworks and US connector maker Molex have shown 10.3Gbit/s data transmission over 1m of copper traces across a backplane.

“This makes it the first technology partnership to carry out a demonstration relevant to some of the targets of the emerging IEEE 802.3ap 10G Ethernet standard,” said Phyworks.

The demonstration featured the Molex I-Trac broadside-coupled backplane connector system and Phyworks equaliser-enabled ‘backplane interface device’ (BID).

“We showed robust 10Gbit/s data transmission in the presence of crosstalk aggressors,” said Phyworks, which used its CMOS PHY1066 BID chip.

Molex I-Trac allows customers to assign high-speed differential pairs, low-speed signals, power and ground contacts anywhere within the pin-field.

“The combination opens new opportunities for upgrading and reuse of existing backplanes. This will allow higher data-rate and throughput than envisaged previously,” said Phyworks’ marketing director Brad Weaterton.
 
But 10Gbit/s Ethernet is also emerging as the next target data rate for local area networks in the enterprise environment. Presently, most multimode fibre (MMF) typically carries data traffic at Ethernet data rates up to 1.25Gbit/s (Gbit Ethernet or 1GbE). As enterprise applications evolve and the demand for bandwidth grows, there is a strong need to support higher data rates.

The enterprise space has a significant base of installed fibre optics cables, and practical economics suggest that leveraging this existing infrastructure to carry 10.3Gbit/s traffic (10Gbit Ethernet or 10GbE) makes sense. A significant challenge to be considered is that installed legacy fibre was not designed to support higher data rates, and thus maximum link distances are more limited for 10GbE than for 1GbE, due to increased levels of modal dispersion.