Cortina Systems Explained

Cortina Systems, Inc. is a supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) for broadband communications founded by Iranian-American entrepreneur Amir Nayyerhabibi in 2001. It is based in California.

Cortina System was bought by Inphi Corporation in 2014.^[1]

History

Cortina Systems was founded by Amir Nayyerhabibi (who served as president and CEO) in 2001 in the Menlo Park, California library, located in Silicon Valley.It has development centers in USA, Canada, China, Taiwan, Israel.

Cortina’s product line spans computer and telecommunication networking: the company has products for core, enterprise, metropolitan high-speed networks, as well as products for the digital home networks. Products include:

• Ethernet: 1-, 2-, and 4-port 10 Gbit/s Ethernet MACs; 4-, 10-, 12-, and 24-port 1 Gbit/s Ethernet MACs
• Transport: 2.5 Gbit/s, 10 Gbit/s and 40 Gbit/s FEC/OTN Framers; 100 Gbit/s FEC/OTN/Ethernet Framer; 2.5G and 10 Gbit/s VCAT framer
• Framer: SONET/SDH POS, ATM, and GFP framer for OC-3 to OC-192 with integrated SerDes; RPR framer, RPR bridge
• Access: 4-port EPON OLT, EPON ONU
• PHY: 10 Mbit/s transceiver; 1-, 2-, 4-, and 8-port Fast Ethernet transceivers: 6- and 8-port Fast Ethernet repeaters
• T1/E1: 1-, 4-, and 8-port T1/E1/J1 transceivers and repeaters; OC3 transceiver
• Digital Home Processor: Multi-core, Storage, Security

In 2006 it announced the Interlaken protocol with Cisco Systems.^[2]

Manufacturing

Cortina is a fabless semiconductor company. It outsources all semiconductor manufacturing to merchant foundries. The company is based in Sunnyvale, California. It also has other research and development sites in Hsinchu (Taiwan), Ottawa (Canada), Raleigh (USA) and Shanghai (China).

Acquisitions

Cortina has acquired several companies. In October 2014 Cortina was acquired by Inphi Corporation, with the exception of Cortina’s Access and Digital Home business.^[3]

Date	Acquired Company	Expertise
2004	Azanda Network Devices	Traffic management and ATM Segmentation and Reassembly products^[4] ^[5]
2006	Intel Optical Networking – Component Division	Ethernet Framers, Ethernet PHYs, Optical Transport FEC framers, Ethernet over SONET service framers, and T1/E1 Line Interface Units^[6] ^[7]
2007	Immenstar	Passive optical networking system-on-chip technology^[8]
2008	Storm Semiconductor	Network processors for the home^[9]

External links

• Cortina web site
• 2008 Silicon Valley Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards

Notes and References

1. Web site: Inphi Completes Acquisition of Cortina Systems. 2021-02-09. Inphi. en-US.
2. News: Cisco Systems, Cortina Systems Announce Interlaken Protocol . News release . April 24, 2006 . Cisco Systems Inc. . June 16, 2011 .
3. News: Inphi Completes $131M Acquisition of Semiconductor Company Cortina Systems. 2014-10-06. Wall Street Journal. 2019-05-27. en-US. 0099-9660.
4. News: Cortina Acquires Azanda Network Devices . Converge! Network digest . February 2, 2005 . June 16, 2011.
5. News: Cortina Acquires Azanda Network Devices . Light Reading . February 2, 2005 . June 16, 2011.
6. News: Cortina Systems Purchases Intel's Optical-Networking Components Business . News release . Intel . September 11, 2006 . June 16, 2011.
7. News: Top 10 Private Companies: Cortina Systems Inc. No. 2 . Light Reading . August 15, 2007 . June 16, 2011.
8. News: Cortina Systems enters access arena with Immenstar acquisition . Meghan Fuller . Lightwave online blog . February 26, 2007 . June 16, 2011.
9. News: Cortina Systems buys Storm Semiconductor . Dean Takahashi . Venture Beat blog . June 18, 2008 . June 16, 2011.