Transpectrum made a grand entrance into the analog semiconductor market today with the launch of the world's first single-chip, 40 Gigabit per second (Gbitps) CMOS transceiver. Transpectrum will be demonstrating its flagship product, XPT140, and its PASIFX ultra-high-speed link product family in conjunction with the Optical Fiber Communications Conference in Los Angeles (Booth #5701).

Transpectrum, founded one year ago by prominent engineers in the semiconductor industry, is a provider of leading-edge, integrated CMOS semiconductor solutions that enable broadband communications and networking of data, video and voice services. The company launched today and unveiled the XPT140, an ultra-high-speed integrated circuit (IC), manufactured entirely in CMOS process technology.

"Transpectrum is pioneering a new class of communications semiconductor solutions," said Dr. Fred Mohamadi, CEO, Transpectrum. "Others have talked about bringing this level of technology to market, but through our unique design techniques we have been able to bring the benefits of lowest power, lowest cost, and smallest footprint chips years ahead of the competition."

"CMOS technology has demonstrated that it is capable of performing the OC-192 PHY function. This provides important power and integration advantages for optical networking equipment," said Allan Armstrong, director of optical transport semiconductors at RHK, Inc. "Transpectrum plans to further lower the power of OC-192 transceivers, deploy quad transceivers in DWDM applications, and pioneer the use of CMOS for OC-768."

PASIFX Product Family

Transpectrum's PASIFX portfolio brings unprecedented benefits to enterprise LANs, SANs, WANs and MANs by reducing the amount of physical space and power required for deploying more bandwidth; decreasing operating equipment costs while maximizing bandwidth capacity; and simplifying packaging and cooling, reducing overall system complexity and size.

Transpectrum's multi-channel 10 Gbititps PASIFX product portfolio includes the following:

1. CMOS single 10 Gbititps transceiver
2. CMOS quad 10 Gbititps (OIF compliant, SFI-5)
3. CMOS quad 10 Gbititps (Ethernet compliant 802.ae)
4. Ultra high-speed CMOS single 40Gbitps Transceiver

Transpectrum XPT410, the world's first single-chip, 40 Gbitps CMOS transceiver, is a fully integrated quad 10 Gbititps transceiver, that features the following:

1. Smallest integrated circuits (IC) footprint ever;
2. Lowest power (fraction of power consumption than competing CMOS solutions); and
3. Lowest cost to customer (lowest fabrication cost than those who use industry standard processes).

"Our multi-channel PASIFX product portfolio is the only family of transceiver solutions manufactured entirely in CMOS process technology," said Dr. Behzad Razavi, founder of Transpectrum. "The PASIFX product portfolio, which we will roll out during the next six months, positions us as a dominant player in the communications semiconductor industry."

Transpectrum, 1575 Westwood Blvd, Ste. 301, Los Angeles, CA 90024. Tel 800-551-6610; Fax 310-477-2094. Web site: www.transpectrum.com

Transpectrum is the new kid on the block with lots of potential and a good game plan. They incorporated in 2001 and will play in the analog semiconductor market with a focus on the transceiver market. This year Transpectrum will be concentrating on design wins and proliferating the product in the 10 Gbitit domain with a four-channel 10 Gbitit solution. Later this year the company will introduce a one-channel 40 Gbit/s (OC-768) integrated transceiver, four channel 10 Gbit/s.

Presently Transpectrum is using 0.15 micron process technology. Can they do it, especially at 0.13 micron process technology? Some have their doubts but Transpectrum says that they can use the 0.13 micron process as well as others use 0.10 micron. The key differentiation is the power consumption. The company says they have unique methods for designing latches and managing the edges of the clock, which translates to a significant improvement in the jitter performance. And they say the product will be sub 800mW, or about half the power of some major players. The company expects to have an integrated part in Q3, and it will have a driver, limiter, TIA integrated with the SERDES. As they move into the 0.13 micron technology, the company expects to further reduce the power consumption. Next quarter the company expects to sample the SFI-5, four channel 10 Gbitit solution.

How do they do it? Transpectrum uses an on-chip inductor complemented by the design of a unique RF circuit as part of their core competence for the design of high speed transceivers. The building blocks that help them put the products together include the VCO, and a broadband amplifier. The company says that knowledge of frequency dividers and multiplexers, and how to implement a VCO, are unique and are a mixture of art and science. They use a massive amount of inductors on the chip, which has enabled them to provide unique ways to manage data transfer. Additionally, they have established close relationships with dominant players of router, core, and module suppliers.

Can they provide what they say they can? They have some impressive talent so now they have to deliver and we should know in a couple quarters if it's the right stuff.

No data sheets were available at the time this was written but I will post them as they become available.