Self-routing crossbar switch with internal contention resolution

Network components for switching and routing systems are needed for the increasing demand of higher bandwidth. Especially the local area networks (LAN) see a strong move from fast Ethernet to gigabit Ethernet transmission. Therefore future router and switch architectures have to be scalable for higher bandwidth. The presented crossbar switch allows building up active backplanes and to connect up to 12 line cards with up to 12 FE polls each. With its aggregated bandwidth of 24 Gbit/sec the crossbar it's the central switching element of this system. The circuit runs at 125 Ml-lz and consumes about 2,5 W. The overall area of the pad-limited design is given by 64 mm(2) while the core area for the switching matrix, control logic and memories is about 25 mm(2).