Renesas: PCIe Gen6 Clock Buffers and Multiplexers

Renesas Electronics Corp. introduced tAclock buffers and multiplexers that meet PCIe Gen6 specs.

Offering 11 clock buffers and 4 multiplexers.

These devices, which also support and provide extra margin for PCIe Gen5 implementations, complement he firm’s low-jitter 9SQ440, 9FGV1002 and 9FGV1006 clock generators to offer customers a complete PCIe Gen6 timing solution for data center/cloud computing, networking and high-speed industrial applications.

The PCIe Gen6 standard supports data rates of 64GT/s while requiring low clock jitter performance of less than 100fs RMS. The company’s RC190xx clock buffers and RC192xx multiplexers have PCIe Gen6 additive jitter specs of 4fs RMS, making them virtually noiseless, and thereby future-proofing customer designs for the next gen of industry standards.

“PCIe Gen6 timing will be at the heart of new equipment in data centers, high-speed networking and other applications,” said Zaher Baidas, VP, timing products division. “As we have done for preceding generations, Renesas is providing customers with the first timing solution to enable these new, higher-performance systems. Our customers know that we have the technical expertise and market knowledge to ensure that their products will be able to meet future requirements as well.”

“By delivering the first discrete timing solution for PCIe Gen6, Renesas is enabling customers to develop the next-generation of high-performance systems,” said Rich Wawrzyniak, principal analyst, Semico Research. “It will be interesting to see the innovative implementations that result from this new capability, especially when considering how solutions for the emerging Chiplet market are starting to evolve, with the need for increasing speed and bandwidth as an underlying constant.”

Features of PCIe Gen6 clock buffers and multiplexers

• Low 4fs PCIe Gen6 additive jitter, 1.4ns in-out delay, 35ps out-out skew, and -80dB Power Supply Rejection Ratio (PSRR) @100kHz ensure robust system design 

• 30% space-saving compared to earlier devices 

• Selectable SMBus addresses allow easy use of multiple devices 

• SMBus write-protect feature enhances system security 

• Loss-Of-Signal (LOS) output supports system monitoring and redundancy 

• 4-wire Side-Band interface supports high-speed serial output enable/disable and device daisy-chaining 

• Power Down Tolerant (PDT) and Flexible Start-up Sequencing (FSS) features ensure good behavior under abnormal system conditions 

Combination
The company has combined the RC190xx clock buffers and RC192xx multiplexers with numerous analog and power offerings to create a combination that provides full power and timing for Intel’s latest generation Xeon CPU platform. The pre-tested design includes the 9SQ440 clock generator, multiple smart power stage devices, an LDO, a USB host controller, and a DDR5 server PMIC. The firm offers more than 300 combinations with compatible devices for a Range of applications and end products.

The RC190xx buffers are offered in 4-, 8-, 13-, 16-, 20- and 24-output configurations. The RC192xx multiplexers include 2-, 4-, 8- and 16-output versions. These devices are offered in packages of 3x3mm. All of these devices are available, along with an evaluation board schematic.