LSI Logic Expands High-Speed Serial Interface Family With 2.5-Gbits/sec
New Core Provides Serial Transmission for Fibre Channel, Computer Clustering,
And Gigabit Ethernet Applications
MILPITAS, Calif., Nov. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- LSI Logic (NYSE: LSI) today announced the newest generation in its family of GigaBlaze(R) gigabit per second CMOS transceiver cores. The GigaBlaze family is the industry's only product combining the power of CMOS integrated transceivers with the ease-of-use of LSI Logic's CoreWare(R) methodology. With the announcement of the new GigaBlaze cores, LSI boosts the serial transfer rate up to 2.5 Gbits/s for high performance systems in Fibre Channel, computer clustering, and networking applications. The new GigaBlaze, built in LSI Logic's G11(TM) 0.18-micron (Leff) CMOS process are easily integrated into system-level ASICs to offer a new generation of low-power, high-speed serial interfaces.
"With GigaBlaze technology, LSI Logic has once again demonstrated its leadership position in providing integrated gigabit per second serial cores," said Bruce Johnson, consultant at Seagate Technology. "The new GigaBlaze cores, with support for data rates of 1.0625 to 2.125 Gbits/s and above, will enable next generation high performance Fibre Channel systems while maintaining low power and low cost."
As the electronics industry undergoes a transformation with ever-greater emphasis in high-speed serial communication, LSI Logic remains at the forefront by offering products with increased serial communication performance. The new cores join previous members of the GigaBlaze family, introduced in 1996 and based on the G1O(R) 0.25-micron (Leff) process, which offered maximum transfer rates of 1.25 Gbits/sec., conforming to Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel standards.
The new G11-based family enables designers to achieve new levels of interconnect performance in storage, computing and networking designs. For example, new GigaBlaze cores can accelerate the migration of Fibre Channel systems from 1.0625 Gbits/sec to 2.125 Gbits/sec for high-performance storage area networks, speed the development of 2.5-Gbits/s interconnects for clustering computer servers and for emerging standards.
"Unlike previous high-speed transceivers and interconnects that relied on expensive, exotic bipolar or gallium arsenide process technologies, the new GigaBlaze family, built in the new G11 process, will be integrated into devices for cost-sensitive storage and computing applications that can greatly benefit from higher interconnect performance," said Hugh Durdan, vice president and general manager of LSI Logic's Computer Products Division. "The G11 CMOS process enables us to reduce costs through higher levels of integration and to decrease power consumption. Since this is our third generation of GigaBlaze products, we have unsurpassed experience in designing devices with high-speed, reusable transceiver cores."
The GigaBlaze cores provide full-duplex, point-to-point communication channels for gigabit serial interfaces. The cores contain both deserializer and serializer circuitry. The deserializer receives a serial, gigabit-speed input data stream and converts it into parallel data. The serializer receives parallel data, converts it into a serialized data stream and transmits this stream at rates from 1.0625 to 2.5 Gbits/sec.
Three generations of GigaBlaze cores have resulted in a technology that is robust and reliable in real system applications with ASICs incorporating multiple GigaBlaze cores and hundreds of thousands of gates. The new GigaBlaze core employs advanced analog design techniques including balanced circuits and symmetrical layouts. The GigaBlaze technology development effort has spanned five years and resulted in a number of patents covering both design and testability.
CoreWare Speeds Time to Market
The GigaBlaze cores are fully supported by LSI Logic's CoreWare(R) program, enabling them to be easily integrated with an extensive library of pre-designed and pre-verified cores, along with customer designed logic. The CoreWare program ensures a seamless flow from high-level description to a working system on a chip. By integrating cores, RAM and user-defined logic for optimizing designs for target applications, the CoreWare program reduces development time and overall system cost while increasing system performance and reliability.
The new GigaBlaze core comes in two versions: the GB11DX and the GB11. The GB11DX supports data rates of 1.0625, 1.25, 2.125 and 2.5 Gbits/sec. This core supports 1 Gbit/sec speeds and can be used in applications with up 2.5 Gbits/sec performance while maintaining backward compatibility with 1 Gbit/sec interfaces. The GB11 supports data rates of 1.0625 and 1.25 Gbits/sec.
Availability
LSI Logic is currently engaging with customers utilizing the new GigaBlaze G11 cores. LSI Logic has delivered more than 20 designs using the previous two generations of the technology.
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