Press Release
For Immediate Release

Molex GbX Reference Backplane Provides Industry’s First Compliant 6.0 Gbps Channel

LISLE, Ill. – July 23, 2004 – Molex Incorporated (NASDAQ: MOLX and MOLXA) announced today that its GbX™ Reference Backplane Demonstrator has reached new heights in helping chip and system designers predict a component’s full performance ability in an actual datacom or telecom system. The Molex GbX Reference Backplane and PMC-Sierra 6G QuadPHY SERDES constitute the industry's first 1-meter silicon-to-silicon channel to be compliant with the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) Common Electrical I/O (CEI) 6+ Long Reach specification (Draft 4.0).

According to Gary Humbert, product manager, Molex Incorporated, Molex addressed a broad range of issues voiced by the members of the OIF, as well as the datacom and telecom industries, to ensure the GbX Reference Backplane Demonstrator met the needs of the design community throughout the development process.

"As a result of industry feedback, Molex created the GbX Reference Backplane Demonstrator as a technology kit for high-speed communications, providing enough diversity in a menu fashion to allow designers to replicate actual system solutions in operation," said Humbert. "Now, design engineers can save time and lower their applied costs by simulating a wide range of challenges that they face in a number of real-life applications."

Launched in February 2004, the GbX Reference Backplane Demonstrator enables design engineers to manipulate several key design variables that greatly influence the transmission quality from transmitter to receiver at three standard channel lengths (0.2 meters; 0.6 meters; and 1.0 meter) in a variety of industry standard and non-standard configurations. It is well-suited for a variety of backplane design applications, including internetworking equipment (servers, hubs and routers); telecommunications equipment (central office, cellular infrastructure and multi-platform service systems); medical diagnostic equipment; and test and measurement equipment.

In addition to predicting transmission quality, Molex’s GbX Reference Backplane Demonstrator provides multiple interface launch technologies to optimize a compliant pin connector’s performance at 6.0 Gbps+ speed. It demonstrates the launch performance between PCBs and connectors, as well as semiconductors and PCBs.

™GbX is a trademark of Teradyne, Inc.

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