Data Center Switch

Customer

Electro-Optical Communications (ECO) Group, Faculty of Electrical Engineering.

Assistant Professor, Dr. Oded Raz, and PhD researcher, Gonzalo Guelbenzu.

Description

Development support of a data center Ethernet switch PCB with 1.28 Tbit/s bandwidth based on a Trident 2 ASIC (28nm flip-chip BGA with approximately 2400 pins). Realization of a 19” 1U rack designed to package four switches with a total of 5.12 Tbit/s (512 channels at 10 Gbit/s).

A single switch has 128 Ethernet channels at 10 Gbit/s each. Optical connectivity is provided using 11 On-Board Optics modules, with a bandwidth of 120 Gbit/s each. On-board synchronous DC/DC buck converters generate 5V, 3.3V (20A) and 1.0V (180A) from a single external 12V power supply. A compact power distribution board splits the main 12V input power and provides voltage and current monitoring, and over-current protection for each individual switch PCB.

The 20x20 cm PCB consists of 20 layers, the substrate material is FR408. Each switch PCB includes a commercial QSeven CPU board (e.g. x86) which is connected through PCI Express to the ASIC, and allows software control of the data plane. External control and monitoring connections are provided through Ethernet (RJ45), USB, and RS232 serial ports.

The 19” rack case includes a front-panel plate with three 2x8 MPO 24-fiber array connectors, and ventilation openings. The back panel integrates the power input connector, up to six cooling fans, and four Ethernet connectors.