Macro Gains from Micro Designs

With bandwith being a constant worry, solutions providers have jumped onto

the bandwagon of customized solution offerings using available resources and

taking up the least storage space, with one vying to outdo the other. Combining

microchip and motion sensors with low bandwith requirement applications that are

available in real-time are thus the key to an upward growth model for

enterprises and solutions providers, both.

Keeping this in mind, Juniper Networks has announced the launch of a new

generation of silicon that will enable customers to upgrade the existing T

Series Core Routers to a full duplex slot capacity of 250 Gbps, with no service

interruption. The new chipset lays the foundation for a total capacity of 4 Tbps

in a single, half-rack system, ensuring that customers can continue to scale the

T Series in line with rapidly accelerating services, subscribers and bandwidth

growth. With Unified In-service Software Upgrades, customers can also upgrade

Junos software from one version to the next with the minimal risk of service

interruption. This chipset is also useful for delivering IPv4 and IPv6 routed

services.

While with the TX Matrix Plus, T1600 customers can evolve to multi-chassis

systems at a massive scale, the new chipset will further enable the scaling of

single chassis systems up to 4 Tbps. Built in 45-nanometer technology, the

chipset yields total router throughput surpassing 4 Tbps, exceeding the

performance and scale of off-the-shelf silicon. In addition, the chipset

includes advanced diagnostic capabilities, auto detection and self-healing, and

also incorporates significant power efficiency features to enable more

environmentally conscious data center and service provider networks.

The first trials with products that use the new chipset technology are

scheduled for the second half of 2010 and will be available for purchase in

early 2011.

In a bid to offer low-cost, motion sensing microchips that consume minimum

power, Microchip Technology, a leading provider of microcontroller and analog

semiconductors, has also announced two new families of 16-bit PIC24F

microcontrollers (MCUs), one with USB functionality and one for general purpose

applications-both with feature of nanoWatt XLP extreme low power technology,

small packages and mTouch capacitive touch sensing.

While, the USB family provides for peripheral, embedded host and on-the-go (OTG)

implementations, Microchip's nanoWatt XLP technology provides the world's lowest

sleep currents, with the current consumption down to 20 nA in Deep Sleep mode,

resulting in the lowest power consumption of any MCU with USB OTG, ten times

lower than USB MCUs from available ultra-low-power manufacturers.

The USB PIC microcontrollers thus enable the lowest power consumption for

applications such as thumb-drive interfaces, capacitive touch panels and many

battery-powered applications. Microchip also provides USB software support,

configuration tools, customer training and USB development boards that can help

designers market their products more effectively.

Applications for the new PIC24FJ64GA104 and PIC24FJ64GB004 MCUs include

battery-powered (remote controls, security systems, portable meters, irrigation

timers), consumer (thermostats, smoke detectors, business card

scanners/printers), industrial (utility metering, electronic locks, POS

terminals), automotive (remote key less entry, audio and infotainment), and

medical (glucometers, blood pressure monitors, fitness monitors) use.

F5 Networks, another leading solutions provider announced new F5 and VMware

solutions which promise organizations to rapidly respond to the changing

application and business requirements by seamlessly migrating live applications

across geographically dispersed data centers.

VMware Vmotion, the joint F5 and VMware solution helps solve latency,

bandwidth, and packet loss issues, which historically have prevented customers

from performing live migration between data centers.

While options are many, performance is still the key and compatibility with

available resources also has to be kept in mind. R&D is thus recommended, and

solutions providers will no doubt compete in this space to offer the best

services, customized to individual business needs. Making the right choice,

ultimately, is up to the user.

Beryl M



berylm@cybermedia.co.in