A 0.8-μm BiCMOS ATM switch on an 800 Mb/s asynchronous buffered banyan network

An experimental element switch LSI for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching systems was realized using 0.8-μm BiCMOS technology. The element switch transfers cells asynchronously when used in a buffered banyan network. Three key features of the element switch architecture are CASO buffers to increase the throughput, a synchronization technique called SCDB (synchronization in a clocked dual port buffer) to make possible asynchronous cell transmission on the element switches with simple hardware, and an implementation technique for virtual cut through, called CELL-BYPASS, which lowers the latency. An implementation of elastic store is proposed to achieve high-speed synchronization with simple hardware. The element switch LSI adopts an emitter-coupled-logic (ECL) interface. The maximum operation frequency of the element switch LSI is 200 MHz (typical)