Sept. 16, 2002 - Leveraging its leadership position in the high-speed interface market, National Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE: NSM) today entered the multi-Gigabit serializer/deserializer (SerDes) market with the introduction of a best-in-class 2.5 Gigabit per second (Gbps) transceiver optimized for backplane, cable and fiber optical applications. National’s new four-channel SerDes solution enables communications equipment vendors to quadruple the capacity of their existing platforms, preserving the investments of service providers and corporate customers.
National's DS25C400 is a four-channel SerDes especially designed to provide a highly robust and reliable 2.5 Gbps per channel solution for backplane interconnect between line cards and switch cards in routers, switches, cross connects and multiplexers. It is ideal for existing FR4 backplanes designed for lower speeds, enabling huge cost savings and “as needed” capacity upgrades.
The Internet and communication infrastructure market has undergone tremendous changes recently with an emphasis on system costs and upgrade capabilities. “In today’s market, many service providers and corporations prefer to add bandwidth by upgrading existing equipment rather than investing in a completely new platform,” said Dave Lewis, Network Interface Business Unit product marketing manager, National Semiconductor. “National’s DS25C400, with low output jitter, high jitter tolerance, and pre-emphasis plus equalization allows equipment makers to put 2.5 Gbps through existing backplanes originally designed for lower speeds such as 622 megabit per second (Mbps), quadrupling bandwidth capacity without a chassis redesign. Now equipment vendors can offer their customers increased bandwidth by providing faster add-in cards instead of forcing customers to tear out their old system and buy an entirely new one.”
Existing backplane and cable bandwidth limitations can create large amounts of inter-symbol interference (ISI) distortion unless costly materials and connectors are used. The DS25C400’s configurable transmitter pre-emphasis compensates for ISI even when driving cables up to 10-20 meters. On the receiver end, the device’s configurable equalization and tight thresholds allow it to reliably recover data—even from signals with severe ISI distortion.
A Robust Solution with Rich Features
National’s DS25C400 operates over the full -40 to +85 ?C industrial temperature range. The combination of low power (less than 2W typical with all channels driving and receiving 2.5 Gbps) and thermally-enhanced 324-ball PBGA package minimizes thermal management and airflow issues.
Other features of National’s DS25C400 include:
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Flexible parallel bus interfaces to 1.8V-swing SSTL, HSTL, or CMOS
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On-chip pattern generator and error checker BIST support
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Hot plug protection
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Integrated termination resistors
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On-chip 8b/10b encoder/decoder
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Comma detect flag for character alignment
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Parallel loop back test mode
Availability, Packaging and Pricing
The DS25C400 quad 2.5 Gbps serializer/deserializer transceiver from National Semiconductor is sampling now. Its evaluation board is also available today. Volume production is expected in the first quarter of 2003. Housed in a 324-ball thermally-enhanced plastic ball grid array (TE-PBGA) package, it is priced at $58.45 each in quantities of 1,000.
About National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor is the premier analog company driving the information age. Combining real-world analog and state-of-the-art digital technology, the company is focused on the fast growing markets for wireless handsets; displays; information infrastructure, and information appliances. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, National reported sales of $1.5 billion for its most recent fiscal year and has about 10,000 employees worldwide. Additional company and product information is available on the World Wide Web at www.national.com.
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