QDR-IV SRAMs enable world’s lowest latency network switch

has selected Cypress’s QDR-IV SRAM for its ExaLINK Fusion networking switch.

The switch utilizes a modular design implemented using a Xilinx Ultrascale

FPGA interfaced to a QDR-IV memory. The ExaLINK Fusion leverages Cypress’s

fastest QDR-IV device running at 1066 MHz, which provides the highest Random

Transaction Rate (RTR) of any memory on the market.

RTR, the number of fully random memory accesses per second, is the critical

memory performance metric for increased line card and switching rates.

Leveraging the high RTR and low latency of Cypress QDR-IV SRAMs, the ExaLINK

Fusion performs conventional layer 2 switching at 110 nanoseconds—the

industry’s lowest latency, which represents a 2X to 3X improvement over the

next best solution in the market. The platform uses two QDR-IV SRAMs per

board for buffering and packet storage. QDR-IV SRAMs are the memory of

choice for latency-sensitive applications within a variety of industries,

including networking, FPGA-based trading platforms, high-performance

computing and defence systems, says the company.

“Cypress’s QDR-IV SRAM provides the high-RTR, low-latency and high-bandwidth

that we wanted in order to achieve leading performance targets for our

ExaLINK Fusion switch,” said Mathew Chapman, CTO, Exablaze. “The modular

design combining QDR-IV with a high-performance FPGA allows users to

configure the ExaLINK Fusion to perform a range of key tasks efficiently and

with the low latency our customers have come to expect from Exablaze

products.”

Oliver Pohland, senior director of the Synchronous Memory Business Unit,

Cypress, added: “QDR-IV offers a significant performance increase over

other memory solutions and will play a key role in enabling next generation

switches and routers operating at 100G and beyond. We are pleased that

Exablaze selected Cypress’s QDR-IV SRAMs to achieve their vision for the

lowest latency network switch on the market."

The bottleneck for reaching increased line card rates is the processing of

look-up tables, statistics and state counters stored in memory, as well as

scheduling functions. QDR-IV devices deliver the RTR required to support

these functions, enabling higher bandwidth and higher quality video streams.

Cypress’s QDR-IV SRAM is capable of operating in burst-of-two (High

Performance) or banked burst-of-two (Xtreme Performance) modes, delivering

the fastest clock speeds and highest RTR of all QDR SRAMs. The banked

burst-of-two mode can be operated at a maximum frequency of 1,066 MHz with

an RTR of 2,132 million transactions per second (MT/s), while the standard

burst-of-two mode can be operated at a maximum frequency of 667 MHz and an

RTR of 1,334 MT/s.

Cypress offers QDR-IV SRAMs in 144- and 72-Mb densities. The 144-Mb

CY7C41xxKV and 72-Mb CY7C40xxKV QDR-IV SRAMs are shipping in production

quantities today and are available in a 361-ball Flip Chip Ball Grid Array

(FCBGA) package.

QDR-IV SRAMs are the market’s highest performance, standardized networking

memories. QDR-IV was developed in the QDR consortium, whose members jointly

define SRAM standards to enable multiple sources and supply stability, says

the company.