Cisco Technology, Inc.

Christophe Metivier

James Thomas Theodoras

Sun-den Chen

Sanjeev Mahalawat

John McCool

Travis Legg

According to one example embodiment, a form factor adapter module may include a small form factor (SFF) host connector, an X2 or XENPAK edge finger connector, and a serial to XAUI transceiver. The SFF host connector may be configured receive a small form factor pluggable (SFP or SFP+) module and to transmit and receive data according to a Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface (SGMII) or Serializer-deserializer Framer Interface (SFI) protocol. The X2 or XENPAK edge finger connector may be configured to mate with an X2 or XENPAK edge finger socket and to transmit and receive data according to a Ten Gigabit Ethernet Attachment Unit Interface (XAUI) protocol. The serial to XAUI transceiver may be coupled to both the SFF host connector and the X2 or XENPAK edge finger connector. The serial to XAUI transceiver may be configured to convert data between the SGMII or SFI protocol and the XAUI protocol.

Form factor adapter module

A SGMII that operates to transfer data between MAC and PHY chips at 2500/1000/100/10 Mbps utilizes a unique frame extending technique in one embodiment where frames having multiples of 2 and 3 data bytes are utilized to change the data transfer rate by multiples of 2.5. In another embodiment different clock signals are utilized.

Growing community of inventors

Los Altos, CA, United States of America

Christophe Metivier