Microsemi Corporation and Aquantia Corp. announced a production-ready multi-rate switch reference platform optimized to support 24x2.5G and up to additional four 2.5G/5G/10G BASE-T ports. The solution—which combines Microsemi's SparX-IV L2/L3 enterprise switch, VSC7448; Linux SMBStaX software; clock management; PD69208M Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) power sourcing equipment (PSE) manager and Aquantia's second generation multi-rate IEEE™802.3bz PHY, AQR409—will be demonstrated by Microsemi in the NBASE-T Alliance booth, #317, at Interop ITX in Las Vegas May 15-19, 2017. With target applications including 1G, 2.5G and 10G Ethernet switching and aggregation, the joint reference design from Microsemi and Aquantia is ideal for enterprise infrastructure applications such as enterprise and small and midsize business (SMB) switches, enterprise access routers, as well as wireless local access network (WLAN) access point (AP) switches. Due to exponential growth of Wi-Fi enabled devices, enterprise APs have maximized their Gigabit uplink throughput. IHS Technology expects total worldwide 802.11ac and 802.11ac Wave 2 APs will exceed 128 million units from 2015 to 2020, comprising more than 76% of total AP shipments by 2020. These 802.11ac upgrades, especially Wave 2, will require additional Ethernet data rates beyond what Gigabit Ethernet technology can currently support. Aquantia collaborates with Microsemi as part of the Accelerate Ecosystem, designed to reduce time to market for end customers and time to revenue for ecosystem participants. Microsemi's Accelerate Ecosystem brings together leading silicon, intellectual property (IP), systems, software and design experts to deliver validated board and system-level solutions for end customers.