The chips target a new class of carrier access systems that currently use separate Sonet and Ethernet cards. Using the new chips, OEM systems such as the Fujitsu Flashwave will be able to fill their systems with cards that process traffic for both the old and new network technologies.

Some of the systems such as Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs) will be used in core networks. Others such as Packet Optical Transport Platform and Micro P-OTP equipment will be used in access nets.

The PMC-Sierra chips include framers and mappers for Sonet and Ethernet as well as Ethernet media access controllers. They sport multiplexing capabilities and have both Small Form-Factor Pluggable and 10 Gigabit Small Form-Factor Pluggable + interfaces.

"With FLASHWAVE 9500's fusion of connection-oriented Ethernet, ROADM and Sonet/SDH transport, Fujitsu defined a new category of optical transport equipment, and PMC-Sierra has provided key innovations to enable it," said Rod Naphan, vice president of planning at Fujitsu Network Communications, speaking in a prepared statement.

"We've been working very tightly with Fujitsu on this product line, and they've won much of Verizon's access network business going forward," said Babak Samimi, a director of marketing at PMC-Sierra.

Starting in 2010, Verizon plans to deploy for its Fios network only so-called Optical Transport Network (OTN) systems that support both optical transport and packet processing. "That's the big push in the supply chain for getting these boxes ready," said Samimi.

Other OEMs including HuaWei, and Tellabs are working on similar systems.

"OTN has been deployed heavily as point-to-point capability, but as a full network replacement for Sonet, it has not been deployed in a big way—we are just in the beginning of that right now," said Andrew Schmitt, a senior analyst at market watcher Infonetics.

Carriers are close to putting [OTN] into their core nets, and the next step is moving it to the edge networks, so they need OTN interfaces on routers," Schmitt added.

Other chip makers including AMCC and Cortina are also making OTN devices, however many focus only on core network systems.

The PM5420 HyPHY 20G and PM5426 HyPHY 10G devices are sampling now at a cost of $785 for the HyPHY 20G and $550 for the 10G device in quantities less than 5,000 units. They come in a 40mm x 40mm, 1,517-ball FCBGA package.