Re-Drivers Support Newest High-Speed Serial Interfaces

Two new re-drivers support the industry’s latest high-speed serial interfaces, countering the losses and jitter introduced by the thinner and longer board traces used on today’s more densely populated boards. The MAX4950 quad-channel buffer re-drives PCIe Gen I and Gen II signals (up to 5.0 Gbits/s). To protect against noise at the output, the device integrates four programmable signal-amplitude buffers, each of which features electrical idle and receive detection. The MAX4951 is a dual-channel (transmit and receive) re-driver for SATA and eSATA Gen I (1.5-Gbit/s), Gen II (3.0-Gbit/s), and Gen III (6.0-Gbit/s) standards. The device preserves signal integrity at the receiver by re-establishing full output levels and reduces total system jitter by establishing a near perfect match and squaring the signal. Both re-drivers operate from a single 3.3-V supply and are fully specified over the 0°C to 70°C commercial temperature range. The MAX4950 costs $6.00 and the MAX4951 is $1.50 in quantities of 1000. MAXIM INTEGRATED CIRCUITS, Sunnyvale, CA. (800) 998-8800.