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StarGen's StarFabric is a powerful switched interconnect technology that
enables distributed processing applications. The technology enables new
levels of scalability, performance, and availability in a wide range of
systems. Its ability to support multiple traffic classes enhances
flexibility in PCI and TDM based systems without requiring any
additional software or hardware investment.
About StarFabric
A StarFabric link can simultaneously transmit and receive at 2.5 Gbps. A
standard link is made up of four aggregated 622 Mbps LVDS differential
pairs in each direction. The signals can be routed on a PCB, through a
backplane or over standard CAT5 cable, for distances of up to 10 meters
between switch nodes. Two 2.5 Gbps full-duplex links can also be bundled
to create a 5 Gbps full-duplex link.
StarFabric Products
StarFabric product line consists of three devices, SG2010 PCI to dual StarFabric bridge which translates PCI traffic (up to 64 Bit, 66 MHz) to StarProtocol 5Gbps serial fabric, SG3010 H.110 TDM to StarProtocol serial fabric and SG1010 six port StarFabric switch which can provide 30Gbps switching bandwidth. StarFabric is scalable and can support 100’s of nodes enabling new centralised or de-centralised, multi processor designs.
Switched fabric architectures remove the bottlenecks caused in multiple PCI bridged based designs where the arbitration can cause considerable delays. In addition the dual bridge architecture of the SG2010 and SG3010 enables developers to build high availability (5 – 9’s) PCI or H.110 based systems, using the redundancy offered by the dual Starfabric architecture.
Serial links considerably increase the ease of signal routing and reduce
connector size and cost. StarFabric can be used to increase physical
separation on large backplanes (Shelf to shelf) and up to 10 meters over
standard Cat 5 cable (rack to rack). Using StarFabric interconnect
provides 100% software, driver and BIOS compatibility in existing PCI
based systems and appear like PCI-PCI bridges.
Routing Methods
StarFabric supports three routing methods:
Address Routing - which allows PCI designs to be transparently migrated to StarFabric, supports PCI traffic over the fabric without requiring any software development. Existing PCI designs can quickly take advantage of StarFabric's performance and scalability through address routing, and can further enhance performance, features and reliability by moving to native StarFabric routing methods at a future time.
Path Routing and Multicast Routing - StarFabric native routing methods,
introduce advanced features like redundancy through failover, Quality of
Service, security mechanisms and multi-processor fabrics. StarGen
provides software tools and libraries to take full advantage of these
advanced features.
PCI Express
StarGen is currently developing StarXpress, a complementary line of products built upon the Advanced Switching standard and compatible with PCI Express(tm). These products will be ideal solutions for blade server, storage, and mid-range communications applications.
Contact Us
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