John D'Ambrosia, Tyco Electronics Shawn Rogers, Texas Instruments Jim Quilici, Intel
10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance

This white paper is designed to provide a general overview of the XAUI interface (pronounced "zowie"), which is part of the impending 10 Gigabit Ethernet standard. Details of the technology are found in clauses 47 and 48 of the 10 Gb Ethernet standard (IEEE 802.3ae), which is currently on track for IEEE approval by mid-2002. This paper by the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance, a group of companies interested in promoting the forthcoming standard, describes XAUI's role in the 10 Gigabit Ethernet architecture and provides a description of its basic operation.