A 1.25 Gb/s, 460 mW CMOS transceiver for serial data communication

To improve I/O performance in computer systems and networks, many new serial data communication standards have been recently proposed with data rates in the gigabit per second range. For example, the proposed IEEE Gigabit Ethernet standard has an encoded baud rate of 1.25Gb/s. Similarly, the IEEE 1394.2 Serial Express proposal requires a baud rate of 1.25Gb/s. Although not yet finalized, it is likely that the physical layers of both the Gigabit Ethernet and the Serial Express will be based upon the ANSI Fibre Channel standard. It is possible to design a single transceiver for all three applications. A single-chip CMOS transceiver is fully compliant with the ANSI Fibre Channel standard at 1.0625Gb/s. It is capable of running at 1.2 or 1.25Gb/s and, therefore, can potentially be used for Gigabit Ethernet and Serial Express.