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Company Success Stories - Ciena Corporation
Ciena Corporation’s Digital ASIC Design Team Leverages the AMD Opteron™ Processor to Reduce Time-to-Market, Lower Costs
Profile
Ciena Corporation
"Due to production schedules and market requirements, we wouldn’t have been able to deliver our latest chip if we didn’t have the performance of the AMD Opteron processor,” said Steven Rennick, lead network systems engineer, Ciena Corporation. - Steven Rennick, lead network systems engineer "
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Challenge
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Network specialist Ciena houses its ASIC design team within its Broadband Access group. The team focuses on expanding the functionality and innovation of its products, and finding ways to better contain costs.
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The ASIC design team was tasked with increasing the production schedule of its upcoming chip that helps its customers deliver improved broadband service without increasing costs.
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Existing electronic design automation (EDA) solutions lacked the computing performance required by Ciena to run the design and testing simulations required to rapidly develop the new chip and meet the increased deadline.
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Solution
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Ciena’s ASIC design team purchased 30 AMD Opteron™ processor-based Sun Fire V20z servers to run the computer-aided engineering program necessary for developing the new chip.
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Ciena selected AMD Opteron processor-based systems after real-world benchmark tests revealed a dramatic performance advantage over competing solutions.
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Impact
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According to Ciena’s Steven Rennick, lead network systems engineer, “Selecting the AMD Opteron processor-based Sun Fire V20z server was a no-brainer. Once we moved to the Sun Fire V20z servers based on the AMD Opteron processor, we were able to easily deliver results and meet our tightened manufacturing deadlines.”
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Ciena was also conscious of power requirements when selecting the AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture. According to Rennick, “We were delighted to learn that the AMD Opteron processor-based Sun Fire V20z servers use less power and rack space as our previous enterprise license system. This was an important factor in our selection process because the power requirement for AMD’s competition is much higher.”
Organizational Profile
Ciena Corporation supplies application-focused networking equipment, software, and services to communications service providers, cable operators, governments, and enterprises. The company focuses on key telco applications, as well as those addressing enterprise and data services, storage connectivity, Ethernet converged services, Ethernet private line and virtual private line, data services gateway and frame relay, and ATM corporate services. Ciena’s networking systems, software and services are designed to target and cure specific network pain points so its customers can best exploit the latest applications that are driving their businesses forward.
Challenge
In response to the growing consumer demand for broadband services, Ciena is supplying its telecommunications customers with ADSL2+ capability in its advanced networking platforms. Essentially an upgrade to traditional ADSL technologies, ADSL2+ requires highly-specialized application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) microchips that deliver multi-megabit bandwidth and greater reach for broadband services, while extending the life of existing broadband connections.
ASIC design and manufacturing processes have advanced considerably in the last few years, and with 130-nm and more recently 90-nm fabrication technology maturing for widespread uses, Ciena’s design team could take advantage of new technologies to deliver its products. These advanced technologies allowed Ciena to pack more functionality into its platforms using chips that have reduced size and power requirements.
Ciena’s hardware engineers have traditionally used the latest EDA tools. While powerful, these tools require high levels of computing performance to operate efficiently. According to Ciena’s lead network systems engineer Steven Rennick, “The simulation and testing is a critical part of delivering a reliable product. We had been using a proprietary, enterprise-license blade system to run these cycles, but it didn’t have enough performance. These systems just didn’t have the horsepower we needed to meet the rapidly increasing demand for the new ASIC chips.”
Solution
Ciena’s ASIC design team purchased 30 AMD Opteron™ processor-based Sun Fire V20z servers to run the necessary computer-aided engineering to develop the new chips. Ciena selected the AMD Opteron processor-based systems after real-world benchmark tests showed a dramatic performance advantage over AMD’s competition. Additionally, AMD’s low power consumption translated into exceptional cost savings and the open nature of the AMD Opteron processor provided the additional benefit of investment protection for Ciena’s various applications.
Impact
Ciena’s new Sun Fire V20z servers, running open source GCC Linux and powered by AMD Opteron processors, are helping Ciena deliver its ADSL2+ telecommunications solutions faster and at a lower cost. According to Ciena’s Steven Rennick, “Selecting the AMD Opteron processor on the Sun Fire V20z server was a no-brainer. Once we moved to the Sun Fire V20z servers with the AMD Opteron processor, we were able to easily deliver the results and meet our tightened manufacturing deadlines. In essence, we now have one box that can do it all.”
Rennick explained that the increased performance provided by the AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture helped Ciena meet one of the company’s tightest market deadlines. “In almost every head-to-head test we ran, the Sun Fire V20z servers based on AMD Opteron processors with Direct Connect Architecture were faster – in most cases at least 4x faster – than the other comparable systems we tested. The AMD Opteron processor-based Sun system also proved to be 10x to 12x faster than our previous enterprise-license blade server set up,” said Rennick. “This improved speed helped us specifically in a recent case: we had to run more than 300 different simulation jobs over one weekend. Excuses in this case were not an option, as one of our customers absolutely needed the chip to meet its own production deadline. The AMD Opteron processor easily delivered the results within our schedule.”
Ciena was also conscious of power requirements when selecting the AMD Opteron processor. According to Rennick, “The UPS power in our server room is limited. We were delighted to learn that the AMD Opteron processor-based Sun Fire V20z servers use less power and rack space as our previous enterprise license system. This was an important factor in our selection process because the power requirement for AMD’s competition is much higher. In the same space we had before, our new system gives us a 10x increase in performance.”
Lastly, Rennick touted the investment protection provided by the AMD Opteron processor. Because of AMD64 technology’s backwards compatibility, when applications needed to run in 32-bit mode, they could do so with ease. “We were greatly impressed at the ease with which the AMD Opteron processor could handle both 32- and 64-bit applications – transitioning back and forth without any kind of performance penalty,” Rennick said. “In addition to stellar performance in 64-bit mode, the AMD Opteron processor ran 32-bit applications faster than any system we tested. This capability has been critical in reducing the time and effort it takes our team to manage the hardware.”
“Due to production schedules and market requirements, we wouldn’t have been able to deliver our latest chip if we didn’t have the performance of the AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture,” Steven Rennick, lead network systems engineer.
About AMD
AMD (NYSE:AMD) designs and produces microprocessors, Flash memorydevices and low-power processor solutions for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries. AMD is dedicated to helping todelivering standards-based, customer-focused solutions for technology users,ranging from enterprises to government agencies and individual consumers.For more information, visit www.amd.com.
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. |
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