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Fujitsu Debuts 26-port 10-Gig Switch

Fujitsu Frontech North America today announced the XG2600 10Gb Ethernet switch. The 26-port XG2600 utilizes SFP+ optical modules and is designed for use with SFP+ twinax copper cables, a physical connection option that is finding greater acceptance as data center managers look for ways to balance reduced cost and easier physical installation. The XG2600 is also designed to reduce costs by lowering power consumption to less than five watts per port. Fujitsu is taking orders for the XG2600 now for fulfillment in December. List price for the XG2600 begins at $18,000.

The XG2600 enhances the Fujitsu XG product line by offering several new features. The use of SFP+ optical modules and support for SFP+ twinax copper cables enables customers to cost-effectively maximize the use of each available port and minimize the overall cost of energy and cabling. The XG2600 also offers field-reversible cooling fans which reduce the overall cost of cooling. All of this is packaged in a 1U high form factor.

Jim Preasmyer, director of sales and business development for Fujitsu, says that the XG2600 is a logical "next step" in the development of the company's XG switch series. "At a high level, we've been in the 10 gig switch business since late 2005. We started with a 12-port box, largely because our engineers developed an ASIC for 10 gig switching. It had 450 nanosecond latency. The next year we went with a 20 port switch built with the same low latency, this time down to 300 nanoseconds. We announced the 26-port ASIC and will release it this week."

Fujitsu's 10 Gb switches have been targeted at high-performance computing and storage where low latency is a critical need. One customer with such a need is the SETI Project at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dan Werthimer is director of the SETI program and director of the Center for Astronomy Signal Processing at the University of California. He says that the SETI Program has used Fujitsu 10 Gb switches since the first 12-port versions were released. He says that the telescopes employed by the university's astronomy department push the switches to operate at full data rate on a nearly constant basis, and that the Fujitsu switches have performed reliably under those conditions.

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