Fulcrum Microsystems - 10GbE switches and fabrics, and related software and reference platforms

The data center is one of the leading applications for 10GE, as data center consolidation and growing traffic place severe strains on the network infrastructure. We're predicting a steady increase in the port count of top-of-rack and other data center switches as blade servers add more 10GE ports. The FocalPoint FM6000 lifts the bar in this emerging wave of high-performance, low latency, high port count merchant silicon to address this market.

Simon Stanley
Analyst, Author
Heavy Reading Reports

Overview of Fulcrum Products

Fulcrum has become a leading provider of highly-integrated, high-performance switch chips using its patented technology. Fulcrum is redefining the interconnect by delivering fully-standard switching solutions that provide advanced features and shatter all established benchmarks for high bandwidth, low latency and power efficiency.

FocalPoint Ethernet Switch Chip Family

FocalPoint, a breakthrough 10G and 40G Ethernet switch chip family, adds several new dimensions to ubiquitous Ethernet, including low latency, fabric convergence, standards adaptability, and scalability. The device family delivers the industry's lowest latency: 200nS as a layer-2 switch; 300nS as a full router with all features enabled. With the new FM6000 Series, FocalPoint also offers a highly-adaptable packet processing pipeline, called FlexPipe, and the industry's highest packet rate -- 1B pps. These virtues make Focalpoint the most cost-effective and high-performance choice for storage, computing and networking backplane and fabric applications. Click on the links below to learn more about the FocalPoint product families:

FM2000 Series - L2 switches with as many as 24 10GbE ports

FM4000 Series - L2-L4 switch/routers with as many as 24 10GbE ports

New FM6000 Series - L2-L4 fabric with as many as 72 10GbE (18 40GbE) ports

FocalPoint Platform Reference Designs

Fulcrum has developed a number of platform reference designs that demonstrate the capabilities of the FocalPoint devices and enable customers to get to market quickly with integrated, low-cost, and differentiated product offerings. Click on the links below to learn more about the most popular platform reference designs:

Amsterdam - FM6000 Series platform with 48 10GBASE-T and 4 QSFP (40G)

Barcelona - FM6000 Series platform with 48 SFP+ and 4 QSFP (40G)

Monaco - FM4000 Series platform with 24 SFP+

Vegas - FM4000 Series platform with 48 1GBASE-T and up to 8 10GbE

FocalPoint Software

The FocalPoint Software consists of a family of Ethernet bridging, switching, and routing software applications that are integrated into a flexible and extensible Linux framework, enabling equipment providers to rapidly deliver switch and router solutions based on Fulcrum's FocalPoint family of Ethernet switch chips.