Product category:
Intellectual Property Cores
News Release from: Agere Systems | Subject: Serdes core
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 07 December 2004
Serdes core speeds serial I/O to
6.25Gbit/s
Agere Systems has developed a new technology platform for high-speed serial interfaces in storage and enterprise network products.
Agere Systems has developed a new technology platform for high-speed serial interfaces in storage and enterprise network products This semiconductor technology enables disk drive and system manufacturers to design interface solutions across any serial standard for increasing the data throughput up to 6.25Gbit/s between devices in computing, mobile, Ethernet networking and network- and server-attached storage applications
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Mar 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Agere's new serdes platform addresses the proliferation of serial interface technology across multiple applications, from emerging Serial ATA (SATA) and PCI Express standards used in PCs to Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS), Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet solutions in enterprise backplane and storage area networks.
All of these market segments require the use of serdes technology to drive serial connectivity.
With power consumption and core size half that of previous Agere serial interface offerings, this serdes solution delivers a tested and validated platform for single-chip serial integration.
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Along with exceptional performance, Agere's serdes architecture offers unprecedented design flexibility.
Agere's solution supports both ends of the interconnect for drive-side and host-side serial chips.
Serial interface silicon can be developed using both 130nm and industry-leading 90nm CMOS process technologies, covering all possible oxide, dielectric and voltage combinations.
Agere's solution also offers unique test features that can be used for efficient and comprehensive production testing as well as for system-level testing and optimisation, resulting in robust system designs and more reliable data transfers.
"Agere's serdes solutions will target high-end networking and datacomms switch fabrics along with enterprise storage markets where OEMs look to upgrade the bandwidth of existing backplanes and interfaces", said Sean Lavey, Programme Manager at industry analyst firm IDC.
"We believe chip suppliers with cost-optimised and low-power serial technology capable of scaling from today's 2.5 and 3.125Gbit/s speeds to faster 6.25Gbit/s speeds will be positioned well for this upcoming transition".
IDC expects that nearly 50% of all enterprise disk drives shipped in 2005 will incorporate serial interfaces, with that number growing to more than 90% by 2008.
In addition, IDC projects the enterprise storage semiconductor market to grow from $857 million in 2004 to $1.2 billion in 2008, and the Gigabit Ethernet (GbE)/10GbE chip market to grow from $970 million this year to $2.5 billion in 2008 where this class of serial link technology will be used.
Serdes technology takes parallel lanes of data bitstreams and converts them to a single stream of high-speed data running serially - one bit after another - for more efficient transmissions.
The serdes also simplifies system design by eliminating routing congestion and lane-to-lane skew problems that exist in parallel bus implementations.
Agere's configurable physical-layer serdes can be used in application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for host bus adapters, enterprise routers and switches, and combined with Agere's TrueStore read-channels and other electronics, to develop storage SoCs and controllers for disk drives.
With datarate support up to 6.25Gbit/s, Agere's serdes solution meets current and next-generation requirements of a wide variety of serial interface standards, including SATA, SAS, Fibre Channel, PCI Express, XAUI, Sonet backplane, Serial RapidIO and others.
A higher level of digital functionality in this new serdes architecture contributes to a 50% reduction in core size and power consumption, and provides for future implementations that support datarates exceeding 10Gbit/s.
"With this platform, Agere is offering serial technology that rivals the industry in power savings, small size and data throughput speeds", said Necip Sayiner, Vice President of Agere's Enterprise and Networking Division.
"Agere's flexible platform and production test capabilities provide developers of serial interface products with substantial time-to-market savings, design portability and improved reliability for whatever serial interface standard they choose".
The serial interface platform offers advanced production test features to ensure data throughput reliability and robust silicon designs.
Agere has enhanced its leadership in "at-speed" production testing with the addition of asynchronous jitter tolerance test capabilities in this new serdes platform, allowing for cost-effective core logic and clock data recovery loop testing without the need for additional equipment.
Agere's serdes solutions can perform adaptive equalisation, enabling systems to continually monitor and adjust signal quality while running live data.
This solution is also unique in offering a 90nm serdes architecture capable of both non-return to zero (NRZ) and pulse amplitude modulation schemes.
The serdes architecture is equally optimised for small or large port count ASICs, and supports a wide range of I/O supply voltages, from 1.8 to 3.3V.
Agere's solution also enables cost-effective wire-bonding up to 6.25Gbit/s, and supports flip-chip and lead frame package designs.
This new platform expands Agere's expertise in high-speed serial interface technology.
Agere has numerous storage-based designs with customers for SATA and SAS hard drive and host controller chips.
Agere is also using this serial platform to design 90 and 130nm-based Ethernet router and switch ASICs with serdes capable of running up to 6.25Gbit/s.
Agere's serdes core technologies are available now for ASIC macrocell integration.
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