July 12, 2011 -- Snowbush IP Group today announced the availability of its third generation of silicon-proven Multi-Standard (MS) PHY IP Platform on TSMC 28-nm technology. The new platform, which is capable of supporting a number of different high-speed serial standards, includes a number of architectural changes to improve performance while adjusting to the design challenges of the 28-nm node. The new MS PHY, operates at speeds up to 12.5Gbps and at 7.2mW per Gbps per channel in a quad configuration.

Support for multiple standards

The Snowbush MS PHY IP operates at speeds ranging from 1Gbps to over 12Gbps. Supported standards include Ethernet for 10GBase-KR, BASE-R, XFI, RXAUI and XAUI; Optical Interface Forum (OIF) for CEI-11G and CEI6G; PCI-SIG for PCIe 3,2, and 1; USB 3.0; SATA and SAS at 1.5Gbps, 3Gbps and 6Gbps, and is positioned to handle the new emerging SATA standards at 12Gbps The new MS PHY features new digital control for programming the SerDes to support different standards. Digital calibration and trimming tune the performance of the PHY and adaptation functionality adjusts to varied channel characteristics to ensure the best quality of service on the link. Auto-negotiation and link training are provided for standards requiring those features.

In addition to exceeding the performance requirements of the targeted standards, the new Snowbush MS PHY is highly programmable and optimized for low power and minimal silicon footprint. The low-power transmit driver is immune to supply noise while delivering amplitude and slew rate programmability as well as multi-tap pre- and post-emphasis.

On the receive side, a continuous time-linear equalizer (CTLE) with automatic gain control (AGC) feeds a 5-tap decision feedback equalizer (DFE) to minimize inter-symbol interference (ISI) and deliver optimized eye data. The MS PHY supports a number of different power-management modes including allowing each lane to be powered-down independently.

A number of test and debug features are available including an on-chip EyeView-Scope-on-a-Chip eye monitor for accurate visibility of the input signal quality and performance of the equalization, pseudo random bit sequence (PRBS) generators/ checkers with a user-defined-pattern option, and jitter injection. AC JTAG is also available.

Availability