Infineon Technologies Announces ATM Buffer Manager for High-speed Access and Wireless Networks; Rate Adaptive Features Help Assure Quality of Service

Nov 28, 2001 | Market News

Munich – November 28, 2001 – Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX), a world leading provider of integrated circuits for advanced communications systems, today announced a new version of its Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Buffer Manager for price sensitive markets. Named ABM-3G, the new chip acts as a “traffic controller” directing, prioritizing and controlling the flow of voice, video and digital data within telecommunications networks while ensuring Quality of Service (QoS). Offering high-performance and competitive pricing the new central component is targeted at next generation wireless infrastructure systems, WAN switches and DSLAM/DLC solutions.

“Key requirements for traffic management ICs in the high-speed access and wireless markets include scalability, to support a large number of lines in a small footprint, and rate adaptive features to help providers deliver assured Quality of Service,” said Christian Wolff, vice president in Infineon’s Communications Group and General Manager of the Access Business Unit. “Drawing on our experience in delivering high integration ICs for network switch and line card applications, the newest addition to the Infineon ABM family provides the performance and high-port density needed to exceed all requirements for standards-based OC-12 networks.”

Designed to provide traffic management and shaping functions for ATM switches and Access Multiplexing applications, the new ATM Buffer Manager, ABM-3G, gives system vendors flexible service differentiation by supporting up to 16 traffic classes with individually selectable thresholds. Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) secures Quality of Service (QoS) for delay sensitive traffic by applying strong fairness criteria in the utilization of all available bandwidth, while guaranteeing a throughput of up to 687Mbps.

Targeted at the more price sensitive market, such as Metro Access Networks, the ABM-3G enables system vendors to significantly reduce development time and costs. These are achieved partially due to simplified command schemes utilizing message-based interface (API) and Operating System (OS) independent drivers for easier software development.

The ABM-3G provides enhanced scheduler performance thereby enabling better traffic management on the loop; with up to 128 schedulers in bi-directional mode or 256 schedulers in uni-directional mode the ABM-3G can assign 1 ADSL port per scheduler for up to 255 ADSL ports thus guaranteeing QoS. Other features are non-blocking backpressure, VC-Merge (for MPLS support), operating power of 3.3V (I/O) and 1.8V (core), and power dissipation of approximately 2W.

Pricing and Availability


Infineon’s ABM-3G chip supports all relevant ATM Forum and ITU-T standards. Packaged in a P-BGA-456, the ABM PXF 4333 V1.1 is priced at US$150 in 1k quantities. Engineering samples are available now.

About Infineon


Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for applications in the wired and wireless communications markets, for security systems and smart cards, for the automotive and industrial sectors, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In the fiscal year 2001 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 5.67 billion with about 33,800 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

Infineon and the stylized Infineon Technologies design are trademarks and servicemarks of Infineon Technologies AG.

Any statements in this document that are not statements of historical fact are "forward-looking" and therefore involve risks and uncertainties; actual results may differ from such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from those indicated by such forward-looking statements include uncertainties relating to the acceptance of Infineon’s communications IC solutions, including its xDSL technology offerings, and other business factors and uncertainties that are discussed in its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the "Risk Factors" section of its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended September 30, 2001. Infineon Technologies undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Information Number

INFCOM200111.011e