The Xilinx® 40G/50G High Speed Ethernet Subsystem is designed to function as the network interface for applications that require a very high bit rate, such as:
- Ethernet switches
- IP routers
- Data center switches
- Communications equipment
The capability to interconnect devices at 50 Gb/s Ethernet rates becomes especially relevant for next-generation data center networks where:
- To keep up with increasing CPU and storage bandwidth, rack or blade servers must support aggregate throughputs faster than 10 Gb/s (single lane) or 20 Gb/s (dual lane) from their Network Interface Card (NIC) or LAN-on-Motherboard (LOM) networking ports.
- Given the increased bandwidth to endpoints, uplinks from Top-of-Rack (TOR) or Blade switches need to transition from 40 Gb/s (four lanes) to 100 Gb/s (four lanes) while ideally maintaining the same per-lane breakout capability.
- Due to the expected adoption of 100GBASE-CR4/KR4/SR4/LR4, SerDes and cabling technologies are already being developed and deployed to support 25 Gb/s per physical lane, twin-ax cable, or fiber.