Broadcom announced a range of new silicon devices that support the Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) IEEE P802.3az draft standard, including new Ethernet controller and physical layer (PHY) device solutions.
The IEEE P802.3az specification provides for energy savings at the PHY level when the network link is idle. Network infrastructure components can take advantage of power savings when the network stack experiences periods of inactivity, starting with both sides of the media access controller (MAC)/PHY interface, when a port is in EEE mode.
On top of this, Broadcom said its Energy Efficient Networking provides additional power savings by:
- Supporting the enhanced Layer 2 savings mechanism (currently optional for triple speed products and mandatory for 10 Gigabit speeds in the IEEE 802.3az specification).
- Implementing comprehensive control policies in Broadcom PHY and controller chips that allow for optimized, customizable and enhanced energy savings for a wide variety of applications.
- Broadcom Energy Efficient Networking implements energy savings metrics that allow Broadcom end-customers to quantify the savings that are realized during operation.
- A Broadcom EEE draft-compliant PHY lowers power consumption by up to 70% during periods of low traffic utilization when compared to a PHY without EEE implemented. The overall power consumption is reduced on products including switches, storage systems, servers and personal computers that have a Broadcom EEE-enabled PHY in their design.
- Broadcom’s AutoGrEEEn technology allows a Broadcom EEE-enabled PHY to be in EEE mode when interfacing with a non-EEE enabled MAC, without requiring changes to the non-EEE device.
The new silicon includes a highly integrated Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) controller targeted for PC applications. It integrates both the Ethernet MAC and PHY on a single chip to provide wired network connectivity for desktop, notebook and netbook systems. Broadcom is also introducing a highly integrated GbE controller and 5-in-1 memory card reader supporting the latest standard for memory cards, and a dual-port GbE controller targeted for server and workstation applications supporting a PCI Express v2.0-compliant host interface. http://www.broadcom.com
