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ClariPhy Granted US Patents Enabling Standards-Based Testing of Networking Components
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Inventions Incorporated in High-Speed Networking Standards Covering 10G Ethernet, Fibre Channel, Serial Attached SCSI, and SFP+ Modules
Irvine, CA -- ClariPhy Communications, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company specializing in high speed communications ICs, today announced that it has been awarded two United States patents covering testing of key components in high-speed networking links. The patents cover inventions utilizing Waveform and Dispersion Penalty (WDP) and Transmitter Waveform and Dispersion Penalty (TWDP) performance metrics. This technology was first adopted in the IEEE 802.3 10 Gigabit (10G) Ethernet standard, applying to 10GBASE-LRM transmission on multimode fiber networks. Extensions of this technology were later widely adopted into several other standards, including SFF-8431 covering SFP+ modules, FC-PI-5 covering Fibre Channel serial links, and SAS-2 and SAS-2.1, covering Serial Attached SCSI physical interconnects. In addition, it is currently being considered by other standards bodies.
The inventions, covered by US patents 7,643,752 and 7,664,394, describe a method to test transmitters and a method to test intermediate components when the final receiver includes an equalizer. The methods distinguish between impairments that the equalizer can compensate and those that it cannot compensate.
"Testing the transmitters was a vexing problem during the early development stages of 10GBASE-LRM," said Dr. Norm Swenson, Co-founder and CTO of ClariPhy Communications, and a co-inventor of the technology. "Simple eye diagrams were insufficient, and building a hardware reference receiver would have been cost-prohibitive."
"We are gratified that the ClariPhy contribution has proven beneficial to the industry, as evidenced by its widespread adoption," said Dr. Paul Voois, Co-founder and CEO of ClariPhy.
In addition to the patents granted and pending, ClariPhy holds copyrights on the MATLAB™ code used to describe the underlying algorithm. ClariPhy has agreed to license the intellectual property required to practice various standards under a reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis. For licensing information, please contact Dr. Swenson.
About ClariPhy
ClariPhy Communications, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company developing mixed signal, advanced digital signal processing ICs targeting 10, 40, and 100 Gbps networks in enterprise backbone, enterprise data center and telecom environments. ClariPhy’s ICs enable IT and network management to significantly improve network performance and lower cost. ClariPhy’s investors include Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Onset Ventures, Allegis Capital and Pacific General Ventures. ClariPhy is headquartered in Irvine, California with offices in Los Altos, California and Cordoba, Argentina. For more information, please visit http://www.clariphy.com.
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