National Semiconductor Unveils New Repeater Extending PCI Express Gen-3 Standard Range by Threefold

PowerWise Repeater with PCIe x4, x8, and x16 link configurations at the PCI-SIG Compliance Workshop
First to pass interoperability test

– National Semiconductor (CEO: Choi Chung-won) today launched a new family of PCI Express® (PCIe) Gen-3 (8Gbps) repeaters that provide low power consumption and superior signal conditioning performance for data center servers and storage devices. A video demo of National's new repeater product family can be found at http://tinyurl.com/TBD .

Dave Thomson, an engineer at Intel®’s Platform Applications Business Unit, stated, “PCI Express 3.0 improves data speeds up to 8 GT/s, helping Intel’s next-generation desktop and server platforms meet the I/O bandwidth requirements of today’s applications,” adding, “National Semiconductor’s new PCIe repeater meets the demanding signal integrity conditions of PCI-SIG receiver testing and is applied to interconnect loss compensation to ensure an uninterrupted network environment.”

Passed PCI-SIG interoperability test
National's PCIe repeater passed Gen-3 interoperability tests conducted using Intel server processors and PCIe controllers from various other companies at the PCI-SIG Compliance Workshop held for one week starting April 18, 2011. The tests included link training and data transactions at Gen-1, Gen-2, and Gen-3 speeds in x4, x8, and x16 configurations.

A new PCIe repeater powered by National's 3rd generation SiGe BiCMOS process solves signal integrity issues caused by 8Gbps Gen-3 data rates. The DS80PCI102, DS80PCI402, and DS80PCI800 provide up to 36dB of receive equalization gain and 12dB of transmit de-emphasis, extending signal range threefold and reducing power by half (65mW/channel) compared to existing industry repeater products. The innovative performance of PowerWise® repeaters extends the FR-4 backplane range up to 40 inches, simplifying data rate migration from Gen-2 to Gen-3, which enables system designers to use low-cost high-loss cables and board-to-board interconnects.

The DS80PCI402 enables the implementation of a x4 PCIe interface, whereas the DS80PCI800 is suitable for high-density interfaces such as x8 and x16. The x1 interface of the DS80PCI102 is suitable for industrial and desktop applications. All of these devices support the new Gen-3 transmit FIR handshake protocol and the seamless detection and management of PCIe out-of-band signals, such as transmit idle/beacon and receive detection, without external system interference. Consequently, PCIe interoperability is guaranteed at the wiring and system levels, while design complexity is reduced.

National PCI Express Gen-3 Repeater Family
While the DS80PCI800 includes eight channels, the DS80PCI402 includes four bidirectional lanes, and the DS80PCI102 includes one bidirectional lane. All of these devices typically consume 65mW of power per channel, are easy to use, offer a selectable single supply voltage of 3.3V or 2.5V, and do not require a reference clock. This repeater family extends interconnection range by compensating for channel loss through the provision of both receive equalization and transmit de-emphasis on each lane. This repeater family