Fulcrum Microsystems Selects Spirent TestCenter For 10-Gigabit Ethernet Testing

Sunnyvale, CA - Spirent Communications plc, a global provider of performance analysis and service management solutions, recently announced that Fulcrum Microsystems, a fabless semiconductor company focused on developing low latency 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch/router chips for next-generation networking systems, has selected Spirent TestCenter's 10GBASE – CX4 test system. Fulcrum is using Spirent TestCenter to demonstrate that its new FocalPoint FM4000 router chip family is the industry's fastest packet forwarding and lowest latency switch for 10GbE line-rate performance for data center and enterprise networking applications.

Enterprise networks and data centers are witnessing exponential use of triple-play services, multimedia applications and interactive web content. These services place more demand on the total bandwidth and the throughput of data center network devices. This bandwidth crunch has resulted in a growing demand for low latency switches such as Fulcrum's, to ensure that the Layer 2 and Layer 3 traffic is forwarded to reduce the total amount of network delay that accumulates at the higher network layers.

"Fulcrum's 24 port FocalPoint 10GbE switch is designed to deliver the fastest packet forwarding, line rate capable in a single integrated 10GbE switch chip," said Alain Gravel, vice president of engineering at Fulcrum Microsystems. "And Spirent TestCenter was the only test solution that enabled us to validate the performance of our switch silicon, to demonstrate that it has the lowest latency in the industry and to do it in a cost-efficient fashion."

A joint demo of the Spirent TestCenter system measuring Fulcrum's ultra-low latency switch fabric will be on display at Fulcrum's booth #2161 at SC07 supercomputing trade show in Reno, NV, November 13-15, 2007.

Spirent TestCenter 10GbE solution stress tests and benchmarks the performance of switches, link aggregators and routers to ensure that network solutions meet or exceed the industry specifications. Furthermore, Spirent TestCenter is the industry's only test system to accurately measure 10GbE cut-through switch performance for all packet sizes from 64 bytes through 9216 bytes. The biggest benefit to switch chip and equipment manufacturers is to be able to directly measure latency with a ± 40 nanoseconds measurement range of repeatability in any test topology without post test result mathematical manipulation.

"Spirent is delighted to have partnered with Fulcrum to help test its 10GbE switch reference design," said Rob Piconi, president and COO of Spirent Communications. "This engagement with Fulcrum only reiterates Spirent TestCenter's overwhelming adoption by communications chip manufacturers, service providers, equipment vendors, and enterprises. Spirent TestCenter has established itself as a test platform that is truly changing the way engineers think about testing."

Recent releases of Spirent TestCenter include the new 10GBASE-T capability for testing to the IEEE802.3an standard, another critical data center technology. Spirent TestCenter also supports the testing of data center network architectures that include network elements such as high density Ethernet aggregation switches, virtualization, application acceleration and security devices.

For more information Spirent TestCenter please visit http://www.spirent.com/go/STC

SOURCE: Spirent Communications plc