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