VSC3406 Multi-Channel Backplane Transceiver - Vitesse

Vitesse announced the VSC3406 Multi-Channel Backplane Transceiver. The new 6.375 Gbps transceiver is the first in a family of clock-data recovery (CDR) products to feature Vitesse’s VScope waveform viewing technology that embeds an oscilloscope function into the receiver of input CDR circuits. Applications of VSC3406 includes: Backplane capacity doubler, Short reach fiber transceiver, Copper cabling transceiver, and Test and measurement.

VSC3406

The VSC3406 Backplane Transceiver achieves highly advanced operations at any data rate between 125 Mbps to 6.375 Gbps. VSC3406 has six high-speed differential transmit and receive interfaces, complete with on-chip termination ideal for interfacing to a variety of media such as optoelectronic devices connected to optical fiber or cables ad PCB traces. The multi-rate CDR of the VSC3406 makes it ideally suited for next-generation backplanes and communication equipment running a variety of protocols, including Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, XAUI, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), PCI Express (PCIe) and Serial ATA (SATA).

Key Features of VSC3406 Backplane Transceiver:

• Serial rate doubler or quadrupler
• Advanced EQ that is adaptive and programmable
• VScope embedded waveform viewing technology
• Protocol retiming or transparent operation

Key Specifications of VSC3406 Backplane Transceiver:

• Operation from 125 Mbps to 6.375 Gbps
• Six cross-connectable Tx and Rx ports
• Two-wire or four-wire serial programming interface
• Power dissipation of < 250 mW per channel

The VSC3406 features a 2-to-1 rate multiplier mode that allows data “multiplication” up to 6.375Gbps, doubling bandwidth over existing backplanes. A typical application includes XAUI rate-doubling for efficient transmission in high-speed backplanes over half the number of wires. Coupled with the signal equalization function, these rate multiplier modes can be used to run double and quadruple the amount of bandwidth over existing copper traces. This gives OEMs the ability to field-upgrade equipment to handle greater bandwidth by upgrading line cards and switch cards in existing equipment.

A fully non-blocking, multicast architecture allows the VSC3406 to be user-configured via a simple, two-wire serial interface for a broad range of signal conditioner, retimer, crossbar, or rate multiplication applications. A high degree of signal integrity is achieved by means of configurable input and output equalization. Cost-effectiveness is realized because engineers can use one product across multiple applications and platforms allowing for maximum re-use and research and development savings.

Data rate and protocols supported by VSC3406 Backplane Transceiver:

• 125 Mbps: 100BASE-FX Ethernet
• 1.0625 Gbps: Fibre Channel
• 1.25 Gbps: Gigabit Ethernet
• 1.5 Gbps: SAS/SATA
• 2.125 Gbps: Fibre Channel
• 2.5 Gbps: PCI Express, Serial Rapid I/O, Infiniband, TFI-5
• 3 Gbps: SAS/SATA
• 3.125 Gbps: XAUI, Serial Rapid I/O
• 3.175 Gbps: FC XAUI
• 4.25 Gbps: Fibre Channel
• 5 Gbps: PCI Express, TFI-5
• 6 Gbps: SAS
• 6.25 Gbps: 2 × XAUI
• 6.375 Gbps: 2 × FC XAUI

The samples of VSC3406 Multi-rate Backplane Transceiver will be available in the Q2 2008. VSC3406 will be available in 81-pin FCBGA (10mmx10mm) package. Price for volume quantities: $60

More info:  VSC3406 Multi-rate Backplane Transceiver - Vitesse