SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Analogix Semiconductor has completed testing of its 6.25-gigabit-per-second SerDes (serializer-deserializer) chips using Tyco Electronics' HM-Zd Legacy Backplane System. The Analogix D-PHY 5G backplane transceiver maintained error-free signals at extended trace distances of up to 56 inches in a set of rigorous tests simulating real-world conditions.

Analogix's D-PHY 5G, introduced in April, was tested operating at a full 6.25-Gbps rate with four full-duplex channels running simultaneously. The device achieved a BER (bit error rate) of 10^-16 or better in tests with both encoded and unencoded data.

Analogix and Tyco Electronics designed tests of unprecedented rigorousness to simulate the long-term, worst-case scenarios to which currently deployed high-volume, low-cost systems - as well as many newly-designed systems - are subject. The tests took into account key design variables in both backplanes and SerDes chips. On the backplane side, the Tyco Electronics HM-Zd Legacy Backplane Systems offered a reference platform with inexpensive FR-4 circuit-board material; low-cost, easy-to-use connectors; short and extended trace lengths on both the daughtercards and backplane; and the absence of additional performance- enhancing techniques, such as backdrilling. On the SerDes side, the Analogix D-PHY 5G family was tested with multiple data patterns, raw and encoded data, and multiple channels operating.

Ted Rado, Analogix vice president of marketing, said, "The copper-based backplanes in today's systems weren't built to deal with noise levels that emerge at speeds of 5 Gbps and up. Yet designers are pressured to keep boosting performance within the limits of these original backplanes. So it is absolutely critical when testing new devices to put ourselves in the shoes of the system designer, and set up a test environment that mirrors his world. That world has a huge potential for noise generation, with long, narrow line-card and backplane traces, common legacy materials and the lack of costly 'luxury' processes such as backdrilling to reduce noise. Tyco Electronics' HM-Zd connectors and reference platform provide an excellent way to show how a vendor's SerDes solution can perform under realistic system-level testing conditions."

Analogix Semiconductor Inc.