12G Multi-protocol SerDes PHY

The 12G Multi-protocol SerDes PHYs are designed to deliver high interface speed in challenging system environments. Optimized for power and area at peak bandwidth, our PHYs enable differentiation while maintaining compatibility with a broad range of industry standards.

How the 12G PHY works

The Rambus 12G Multi-protocol SerDes (MPS) PHYs are a general-purpose, high-speed serial link transceiver subsystem that support data rates from 1.25 Gbps to 12 Gbps. Optimized for power and area in high-loss channels, our 12G MPS PHYs are suitable for a broad range of enterprise-class systems.

The PHYs include a PMA hard macro that supports a broad range of networking protocols as well as a PCS-BIST soft macro for PCIe that is PIPE4 compliant. They have a minimal set of broadside control and is configurable in x2, x4 and x8 lane configurations. This gives the PHYs improved flexibility and support for a wide range of applications.

12G SerDes Subsystem Example
MPSL Subsystem Example

The 12G SerDes PHY utilizes transmit and receive equalization, data rate negotiation, and equalization adaptation to improve system margin and performance. This ensures that data is recovered even in the presence of channel and system interference.

Available on TSMC, Global Foundry, and Samsung process nodes.

SerDes Signal Integrity Challenges at 28Gbps and Beyond

SerDes Signal Integrity Challenges at 28Gbps and Beyond

Maintaining signal integrity has become increasingly difficult as data rates moves past 28Gbps to 56Gbps and beyond. Up to 28Gbps rates, NRZ is the preferred and standardized encoding scheme which consists of 1’s and 0’s. NRZ is also referred to as PAM2 (pulse amplitude modulation, 2-level), due to its two amplitude levels which contain 1 bit of information in every symbol. With serial data rates hitting 56 Gb/s per channel, signal impairments caused by increased bandwidth has prompted the high-speed serial data industry to adopt PAM4, or 4-level pulse amplitude modulation. 

Solution Offerings

Protocol Compatibility

ProtocolData Rate (Gbps) Application
PCIe1/2/32.5, 5, 8Graphics cards and high-bandwidth peripherals
10GBase-KR10.3125Copper backplane networking
1000Base-KX1.25Backplane and copper cable networking
10GBase-KX43.125,6.25Copper backplane networking
XAUI/2xXAUI3.125, 6.25Chip-to-Chip connectivity
SAS 12G1.5, 3, 6, 12Server storage
SATA1.5, 3, 6Personal and server storage
CEI6 – SR/LR4.976 – 6.375Telecom and networking
CEI11-SR, LR9.95-11.2Telecom and networking
CPRI0.614 – 9.83Wireless base stations
JESD 204B3.125 – 12High-speed data converter connectivity
XFI/SFI9.95-11.2XFP and SFP+ Optical Modules
Interlaken 6G/10 G4.976-6.375, 10.3125Networking

Inventions

Phase Interpolator-Based CDR

Reduces cost, power and area of clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit and improves jitter performance in high-speed parallel and serial links versus PLL-based CDRs.
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