New Texas Instruments MuxIt™ Family Brings Benefits of LVDS Serializers & Deserializers To General-Purpose Electronics
Versatile Solution is Suitable for Many Different Applications in the Telecom, Paper Media and Consumer Industries
DALLAS (Jan. 23, 2001) -- Leveraging its design expertise in data transmission technologies, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced a new family of general-purpose, multiple-chip building blocks for implementing parallel data serializers and deserializers. The new family is the industry's most versatile data serializer/deserializer solution for transmitting data over low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) links, enabling designers to reduce the number of wires or PC board traces by more than half, and increase the distance over which data can be transmitted by tenfold. Unlike other serializer/deserializer solutions, the MuxIt(tm) family is highly adaptable to a wide range of bus widths and speeds, making it suitable for many different applications in the telecom, paper media, video imaging and consumer industries. (See www.ti.com/sc/aap5554u)
Until now, serializer/deserializer solutions have typically been designed to serve highly specialized applications involving wireless basestation backplanes or liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. As a result, the longer transmission distances and electromagnetic interference (EMI) reduction provided by data serialization over LVDS links have not been available to designers of general-purpose applications. Converting data from parallel to serial over LVDS is desirable because serial transfers can be made at greater distances (up to 10 meters) compared with 50 centimeters for typical logic buses, and because single-ended parallel buses create more noise and are more susceptible to crosstalk than LVDS. In contrast, the MuxIt devices can reduce EMI by a factor of 5. The devices can also be configured to accept parallel inputs from 4 to 40 bits wide and clock rates of 5 to 50 megahertz (MHz), enabling it to meet the needs of a vast array of today's system designs.
The MuxIt family consists of three components supporting simplex communications- the SN65LVDS150 Frequency Multiplier (PLL), the SN65LVDS151 serializer-transmitter (parallel in, serial out shift register) and the SN65LVDS152 receiver-deserializer (serial in, parallel out shift register).
One or more SN65LVDS151 serializer-transmitters are placed at the source end of the link where the original parallel data is located. A matching number of SN65LVDS152 receiver-deserializers are placed at the destination where the parallel data will be reconstituted. LVDS links carry data and clock signals between the source and destination, and the data can travel over one LVDS data link in cascade mode or a number of link lines equal to the number of serializers (and deserializers) in parallel mode.
An LVDS150 frequency multiplier is placed at both ends. The PLL at the source receives the reference clock signal associated with the parallel bus and transmits it to all serializer units. One serializer will transmit this reference clock to all deserializers and the destination PLL on an LVDS link.
The most basic configuration of the MuxIt devices consists of one serializer, one deserializer, and two frequency multipliers (one each at the source and destination). Four to 10 LVTTL data inputs can be converted into one LVDS data link at up to 200 Mb/s. Both data and clock signals are transmitted over a distance up to 10 m and at the destination are reconverted back to the original parallel format. By adding more serializer and deserializer units, which convert 4 to 10 LVTTL inputs to 1 LVDS data link, the MuxIt devices can handle more than 10 bits.
In parallel mode, each serializer transmits its LVDS data output to a partnering deserializer at the destination. In cascade mode, up to three serializers can be cascaded with a fourth serializer, producing combined data of up to 40 input bits, reducing the number of LVDS link lines when system speed allows. Hybrid combinations of parallel and cascade modes can also be configured.
The MuxIt devices join TI's broad family of data transmission products, including other LVDS products for high-speed data transmission, USB for plug-and play PC peripherals, IEEE-1394 for high-speed multimedia applications and the portfolio of robust TIA/EIA-485 drivers and receivers for use in industrial environments. In order to help designers, the MuxIt family is supported by application notes, samples and an evaluation module.
Available Today
The LVDS150, LVDS151, and LVDS152 are available today. Suggested resale pricing in quantities of 1,000 pieces is $4.50 for the SN65LVDS150 and $2.90 for the SN65LVDS151 and SN65LVDS152.
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Trademarks:
MuxIt is a trademark of Texas Instruments Incorporated.
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