As the industry's first purpose-built port extender supporting the IEEE 802.1BR standard, Marvell's PIPE solution offers a revolutionary approach that makes it possible to deploy top of rack (ToR) switches at half the power and cost of a traditional Ethernet switch. Conceptually, PIPE allows data centers to be architected with a very simple, low cost, low power port extender in place of the ToR switch, pushing the heavy switching functionality upstream.

As the industry today transitions from 10GbE to 25GbE and from 40GbE to 100GbE port speeds, data centers are also in need of a modular building block to bridge the variety of current and next-generation port speeds. Marvell's PIPE family provides a flexible and scalable solution to simplify and accelerate such transitions, offering multiple configuration options of Ethernet connectivity for a range of port speeds and port densities.

Through the implementation of the industry IEEE 802.1BR standard, and no per box management requirements, Marvell streamlines network development and simplifies the central management of hundreds of thousands of ports in the data center. To ensure PIPE adoption is seamless and easy, the solution incorporates a programmable packet header editor making it interoperable with a variety of networking gear. Marvell's PIPE solution integrates fast-fail-over and resiliency functionality, providing continuity and high availability to mission-critical applications.

"As silicon geometries move to 16nm and 7nm, the industry faces a critical challenge to provide further power and cost savings in new 10GbE and 25GbE deployments," said Michael Zimmerman, vice president and general manager, Networking Group at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. "Our Prestera PX family is a purpose-built portfolio of port extenders that attaches to high-density 100GbE switches, offering tremendous cost and power benefits. In addition, our PIPE solution doesn't need application software, simplifying the network layers and offering massive savings in both CAPEX and OPEX."

Marvell has collaborated with the industry's top original design manufacturers (ODMs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to provide Prestera PX-ready platforms for ToR switch applications. Samples and reference designs for Marvell's Prestera PX family of solutions are available now.