Posted: 11/23/98

LSI Logic Corp. (Milpitas, Calif.) has unveiled the speediest generation in its family of GigaBlaze gigabit/ second CMOS transceiver cores. With the latest generation, the serial transfer rate rises to 2.5 Gbits/s for high-performance systems in Fibre Channel, computer clustering and networking applications. The transceivers are built in LSI Logic's G11 0.18-micron (Leff) CMOS process and can be integrated into system-level ASICs to offer a new generation of low-power, high-speed serial interfaces. Previous members of the GigaBlaze family topped out at 1.25 Gbits/s.

The company said the newest cores make it possible to achieve new levels of interconnect performance in storage, computing and networking designs. For example, the cores can accelerate the migration of Fibre Channel systems from 1.0625 to 2.125 Gbits/s for high-performance storage-area networks, speed the development of 2.5-Gbit/s interconnects for clustering computer servers and serve emerging standards.

The GigaBlaze cores provide full-duplex, point-to-point communication channels for gigabit serial interfaces. The cores contain both deserializer and serializer circuitry. The deserializer receives a serial, gigabit-speed input data stream and converts it into parallel data. The serializer gets parallel data, converts it into a serialized data stream, and transmits this stream at rates from 1.0625 to 2.5 Gbits/s.

According to the company, the new cores employ advanced analog-design techniques including balanced circuits and symmetrical layouts. The cores are supported by LSI Logic's CoreWare program, enabling them to be easily integrated with an extensive library of preverified cores, along with customer-designed logic.

The new GigaBlaze core comes in two versions. The GB11DX supports data rates of 1.0625, 1.25, 2.125 and 2.5 Gbits/s. It also supports 1 Gbit/s, so it can be used in applications with up to 2.5-Gbit/s performance while maintaining backward compatibility with 1-Gbit/s interfaces. The companion GB11 supports data rates of 1.0625 and 1.25 Gbits/s.

Chip Express and Mentor Graphics Corp. have announced the availability of four new test chips as part of their continued efforts with the CorExpress program. The two have created test chips for four of Mentor Graphics' most popular soft cores: the M8051WARP 8-bit microcontroller, the M80186 16-bit microprocessor, the M85C30 serial communications controller and the M8251A USART communications interface.

In the CorExpress program, announced at the beginning of this year, Mentor licenses its library of Inventra Soft Cores to Chip Express, a laser-programmable gate array (LPGA) provider. Chip Express uses its LPGA technology to create test chips from the cores, validating each core in silicon.

Chip Express hopes its customers will use the cores along with the company's rapid-turnaround services to create system chips.

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