The manufacturer says . . .

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WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--Aug. 26, 2003--Strengthening its leadership in precision high-speed circuits, Inphi Corporation announced eight new very high-performance ICs for broadband test-and-measurement applications. These integrated devices build on the company's existing 13, 25, and 50 GHz high-speed logic (HSL) offerings, and perform critical functions such as clock distribution and retiming in a variety of instrumentation systems. "We recently selected Inphi's 1:4 clock fanout for use in our new 13.5 Gbits/s ParBERT parallel bit-error rate tester," said Ingmar Bretz, Product Manager at Agilent Technologies in Böblingen, Germany. "With very low skew between channels, this part not only met our performance requirements, but also enabled us to reduce the number of discrete components in our clock distribution chain and thereby lower our build costs." With the addition of these parts to its extensive HSL product line, Inphi delivers the greatest breadth of very high-speed logic circuits available today. From D and T flip-flops and simple logic gates to data encoders, frequency dividers, and frequency multipliers, Inphi's HSL products provide the industry's best signal quality with extremely low power dissipation. This wide range of DC to 50 GHz logic components enables equipment manufacturers to develop customized systems for mid-range and high-performance markets at highly competitive price points. 1:4 Fanout Inphi's 13726CF 1:4 fanout distributes precise clock or data signals in performance-driven applications. By packaging this functionality onto a single chip, Inphi enables test-equipment manufacturers to conserve board space and reduce power levels, resulting in lower system costs. The 13726CF supports clock frequencies up to 15 GHz and data rates up to 20 Gbits/s, and as such is ideally suited for both high-speed digital logic applications and serial data transmission systems. click for larger image Figure 1 - 13726CF Output Waveform with 12.5 GHz Sine Wave input 2:1 Selector (as multiplexer, switch, and NRZ-to-RZ converter) Inphi's versatile 20708SE and 20709SE 20 Gbits/s 2:1 selectors can function as 2:1 multiplexers, 2:1 switches, or NRZ-to-RZ converters. In test-and-measurement applications and automated test equipment, either of these circuits can be used as a 2:1 multiplexer to serialize two input data streams of up to 10 Gbits/s into a single 20 Gbits/s output data stream. The 20708SE or 20709SE can also be used as a 2:1 switch to select between two input data streams of up to 10 Gbits/s. In optical transport systems, the 20708SE or 20709SE can operate as an RZ data generator in which an NRZ input data stream of up to 10 Gbits/s is converted to an RZ output data stream. As NRZ-to-RZ converters, these devices can be used to shape the RZ pulse from 20% to 80% in order to compensate for the deleterious effects of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in the fiber. The 20708SE and 20709SE exhibit exceptionally low jitter (3 ps peak to peak) with fast rise and fall times (less than 25 ps). Clock Doubler Optimized to minimize duty cycle distortion and fundamental frequency feedthrough, Inphi's 50714CD and 50715CD clock doublers are designed for applications in which a 35 to 50 GHz clock is required from a 17.5 to 25 GHz input. For example, these parts perform the frequency doubling function in microwave instrumentation and test equipment. Double Edge-Triggered D Flip-Flop With its 50704DT and 50705DT double edge-triggered D flip-flops, Inphi has combined the functionality of a D flip-flop and a clock doubler in a single circuit. These devices first double the frequency of an incoming 17.5 to 20 GHz clock and then use the doubled clock to retime the data. This architecture effectively suppresses duty cycle distortion (DCD) to yield output-data waveforms with very low jitter. The 50704DT and 50705DT are well-suited for retiming the output of half-rate multiplexers, which often exhibit significant DCD. click for larger image Figure 2 - 40 Gbits/s Output Data Eye of the 50704DT Driven with a 20 GHz Clock Divide-by-8, Modulo-8 Counter Inphi's divide-by-8 circuits generate a multi-phase clock signal in high-speed digital systems. The 13728DV, 25728DV, and 50728DV and the corresponding positive supply parts support clock frequencies up to 13, 25, and 50 GHz, respectively. Each device outputs differential divide-by-8 signals, thus eliminating the need to cascade two discrete circuits (a divide-by-4 and a divide-by-2). These circuits can also be used as modulo-8 counters, which simplifies module design by keeping the pin count low (one input port and one output port). Click here for a table showing Inphi's new high-speed logic circuits. Inphi's new high-speed logic products are available for immediate purchase in either a small form factor (7 × 7 mm) surface-mount land grid array package or in die form in sample quantities, with volume production beginning in the fourth quarter of 2003. The 13, 20, and 25 Gbits/s parts are also available on an evaluation board for testing purposes. About Inphi Founded in November 2000, Inphi Corporation is a privately held electronic components company based in Westlake Village, California. Inphi delivers high-speed integrated circuits that optimize power, performance, and size, enabling customers to build the highest performance, most cost-competitive telecommunications, data communications, and instrumentation systems. Additional information about the company can be found at www.inphi-corp.com.

Doing Tricks at 10 Gig Rates Clever designers are always looking for ways to leverage new technology to their benefits. Not only are features such as fastest, densest, smallest, lowest cost, and lowest power key to a product's and a company's success, but also how flexible and clever the basic design is does matter. In many cases, end-users never know how streamlined and refined a design is. As long as it works and does what it is supposed to do, credos are never given to the lonely design engineer(s) in some dank cubicle somewhere who went the extra mile to find a way of making it better than anyone else. But these pioneering designers often times set the stage for next-generation features or techniques that more will adopt. Especially when new parts come out that do what none before them have. Even if not used for their intended function, they can add something extra to a design. Take, for instance, Inphi's new 20708SE and 20709SE 20 Gbits/s chips. While intended for test and measurement, the unique mix of performance and flexibility opens up other possibilities, especially when coupled to some of the other interesting parts from Inphi. Last month I reported on a new 12.5 Gbits/s switch mux chip from Maxim that was touted as the industry's highest performance. It has some nice and unique abilities, too. While not one-to-one functionally equivalent with the Maxim part, Inphi's parts increase the switching, muxing, and combined data rates to 20 Gbits/s. The 20708SE and 20709SE can function as 2:1 selectors, 2:1 multiplexers, 2:1 switches, or NRZ-to-RZ converters. The feature I find particularly interesting is the claim that 20708SE and 20709SE multiplexers can be used to serialize two input data streams of up to 10 Gbits/s into a single 20 Gbits/s output data stream. I couldn't get my hands on enough meaty specs to see what kind of delay and skew these parts have, but if Inphi's claim is true, this creates a way of making a high-speed aggregated double data rate port for connection high-speed backbones. Just like some older 10/100 Ethernet switches that allowed a 200 Mbits/s port for uplinking to next-level hierarchical switches or routers, 10 Gig lines can be trunked to 20 Gig lines for uplinks if the physical interface can handle it. While this won't solve every throughput problem, it's a start. Combined with other handy parts like clock doublers, high-speed logic, clock distribution, high-speed modulo dividers, and counters, Inphi is giving the parts to designers who want to take the time to make a better mousetrap so they can do it. These parts can still be used for test-and-measurement equipment manufacturers, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, emulators, and so on. They can also be integrated on end-products for test and measurement, diagnostics, loopback, fault tolerance, and fault switchover. That extra bell or whistle that makes your design stand out.