Mindspeed Offer Signal Conditioning for Enterprise Applications

Mindspeed Technologies released its "Amplif-Eye" line of signal conditioners designed specifically for enterprise storage, computing and networking applications.

Optimal performance in PCI Express, SATA/SAS, RXAUI, Fiber Channel and Ethernet applications is often difficult to achieve because signal integrity could not be maintained across the systems' backplanes and cabling media.


Mindspeed's products address these problems by correcting for insertion loss, crosstalk, reflections due to impedance mismatches and other channel impairments associated with implementing multi-gigabit signaling between line cards and across their backplanes. The company notes that the signal-integrity problem has been magnified as enterprise data rates have doubled over the past few years to 5 Gbps for the most common server protocol, PCI Express, and 6Gbps for the most common enterprise-storage protocol, SAS. Signal conditioners resolve these problems in two general categories: Re-driving signal conditioners, which use transmit and receive equalization to correct for insertion loss, and re-timing signal conditioners, which add a Clock Data Recovery (CDR) circuit to address issues caused by crosstalk and reflections.


Mindspeed's Amplif-Eye enterprise signal-conditioning product line initially includes six re-driving and re-timing devices, with five other products scheduled to be added later this year. Each device is specifically designed to accommodate SAS, PCI Express, Interlaken and RXAUI protocols. Products in the family are fabricated in low-power CMOS technology to maintain the lowest possible power profile while maintaining best-in-class performance to assist system designers in the difficult task of migrating to the higher data rates.
http://www.mindspeed.com