National Semiconductor PCI Express (PCIe) Gen-3 repeater series

National Semiconductor has introduced a family of PCI Express (PCIe) Gen-3 (8 Gbps) repeaters that offers good signal conditioning and low power consumption for data centre servers and storage systems.

The repeaters passed Gen-3 interoperability testing with Intel server processors and multiple third-party PCIe controllers at the PCI-SIG Compliance Workshop. The tests included link training and data transactions in x4, x8 and x16 configurations at Gen-1, Gen-2 and Gen-3 speeds.

Powered by the company’s third-generation SiGe BiCMOS process, the repeaters claim to solve the signal integrity challenges presented by the 8 Gbps Gen-3 data rate. The DS80PCI102, DS80PCI402 and DS80PCI800 accomplish this by providing receive equalisation gain up to 36 dB and transmit de-emphasis of 12 dB to deliver 3x the signal reach and half the power (65 mW/channel) of competitive devices.

The DS80PCI402 enables implementation of x4 PCIe interfaces while the DS80PCI800 is suitable for higher-density interfaces such as x8 and x16. The DS80PCI102’s x1 interface is well suited to industrial and desktop applications.

Each device supports seamless detection and management of the new Gen-3 transmit FIR handshake protocol and PCIe out-of-band signals (such as transmit idle/beacon and receive detect) without external system intervention.

The DS80PCI800 includes eight channels while the DS80PCI402 features four bidirectional lanes and the DS80PCI102 one bidirectional lane. Each device delivers 65 mW per channel typical power consumption and is easy to use, supporting a selectable 3.3 or 2.5 V single-supply voltage with no reference clock required.