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Bustronic and StarGen Unveil New Twenty-One Slot StarFabric Hybrid Backplane At Applied Computing Conference
Santa Clara, Calif. - May 14, 2001 - StarGen, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company and Bustronic, a leading designer and manufacturer of backplanes, today unveiled a new backplane prototype built using StarGen's new switch fabric technology. The 21-slot StarFabric hybrid backplane will be demonstrated at the Applied Computing Conference in Santa Clara this week.
"We are honored to work with StarGen and the StarFabric Working Group to develop this new backplane product," commented Fred Hirsch, General Manager of Bustronic. "Bustronic and StarGen are highly respected for their technical abilities. Combining our expertise in complex, custom, and high-speed backplanes with StarGen's advances in switch fabric technology, Bustronic has developed a 21-slot hybrid backplane that will be used for proof-of-concept and working demonstrations of the StarFabric technology."
"Our objective has been to make StarGen's universal switch fabric technology an open semiconductor solution for communications platforms," said Tracy Richardson, co-founder and president of StarGen. "We believe open access to technology can provide the most benefit to our customers and the industry. Bustronic has recognized the potential of this approach and has stepped up to the plate to delivered a "home run" prototype with this 21-slot Compact PCI backplane using StarFabric."
This backplane will be used in CompactPCI proof-of-concept designs to highlight the capabilities of StarFabric in terms of scalability, high availability, and simultaneous support of multiple data types all while leveraging existing investments in hardware and software. Systems with this backplane can addresses next generation communications equipment requirements such as trunk speed evolution from OC3 to OC12/OC48 and beyond, allowing 10K to 100K ports per single system. StarFabric supports simultaneous transmission of packet, cell, and voice (TDM) traffic and provides high availability features such as fault detection and isolation, hardware fail-over, and hot swappability. The StarFabric solution provides an elegant migration path from existing bus-based architectures like PCI, H.110, and Utopia. It is 100% backwards compatible to existing PCI and CompactPCI technology.
The 21-slot StarFabric hybrid backplane comes in a 7U form factor, compatible with standard 6U cards, with 1U of power connections on the bottom. Featuring a twelve layer controlled impedance stripline design, the outside layers are ground for EMI protection and suppression. The signal layers are alternated with power and ground layers to minimize crosstalk and control impedance. Power and ground planes use 2 ounces of copper for superior power distribution.
About Bustronic
Founded in 1989, Bustronic specializes in the design and manufacture of high-performance backplanes. Bustronic has a complete line of industry-standard backplanes, including CompactPCI, VME, VME64x, VME320, H.110 CTEL, and VXI. Bustronic's custom design service combines creative engineering, highly sophisticated computer simulation and modern design techniques to offer customized backplanes that meet the most specialized system requirements. A member of the ELMA Electronic group, Bustronic is located in Fremont, California. Bustronic is a member of PICMG™ and VITA and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.Bustronic.com.
About StarGen
StarGen (www.StarGen.com) is a fabless semiconductor company that is developing new switch fabric technology for the communications industry. The technology will benefit vendors of carrier and enterprise communication platforms for next generation voice, data, and video networks. Early adopters will include those building open standards based access/edge equipment such as Voice over Network gateways, DSLAMS, wireless base stations, cable headend systems, edge routers, and remote access concentrators. StarGen's technology will provide a dramatic increase in equipment performance, reliability, and Quality of Service while providing for the retention of existing standards-based hardware and software investment. Founded in February 1999, StarGen is funded by a group of prestigious venture capital companies, including Morgenthaler Ventures (www.morgenthaler.com), St. Paul Venture Capital (www.stpaulvc.com), Commonwealth Capital Ventures (www.ccvlp.com) and Bessemer Venture Partners (www.bessemervp.com). StarGen is headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
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