DesignCon 2019 is in full force this week from the Santa Clara Convention Center. There is tons of energy on the floor, during the presentations and on the sidelines. Real-world 56 Gbps PAM4/112 Gbps PAM4 solutions are everywhere.
The technical presentations feature updates on 5G, V2X connectivity and testing, and other tech trends that will define 2019. One interesting panel discussed the challenges and benefits of AI-based hardware design. Highlights from that are below.
What else is going on at DC19? Keep reading to find out.
Keysight 110 GHz Oscilloscopes
High-speed data rates need high-speed test and measurement support. One of the highlights of the show so has been 110 GHz Oscilloscopes from Keysight. What are some of the features and details?
Their Infiniium UXR-Series Real-Time Oscilloscopes scopes feature the 10-bit ADCs that operate above 8 GHz. That is unique to the industry. Keysight’s solutions also offer the lowest noise floor and lowest jitter in the industry.
56 Gbps PAM4 Active Product Demonstrator
Samtec and Credo have partnered to launch the 56 Gbps PAM4 Active Product Demonstrator. This new platform combines Samtec’s comprehensive portfolio of high-performance interconnect with Credo’s production retimer devices featuring the industry’s lowest power, mixed-signal 56 Gbps PAM4 SerDes technology.
The system includes more than 100 channels of 56 Gbps PAM4 data offering 5.8 Tbps aggregate throughput. Samtec Products featured in the 56 Gbps PAM4 Active Product Demonstrator include:
- ExaMAX® High-Speed Backplane System
- Double Density Flyover QSFP28 Cable System
- 0.635 mm AcceleRate® Slim Body Cable Assembly
- AcceleRate® HD Ultra-Dense, Multi-Row Mezzanine Strips
The Credo retimer and gearbox family enables robust, low power, end-to-end signaling for 56 Gbps single lane rate enabled platforms. All family members are manufactured in 28 nm process technology and are shipping in volume production.
Credo Products featured in the 56 Gbps PAM4 Active Product Demonstrator include:
- CRT5028: 400G full duplex retimer (8 x 56 Gbps)
- CRT50216: 800G full duplex retimer (16 x 56 Gbps)
- CMX42550KP: 400G FWD/REV gearbox (16 x 28 Gbps to 8 x 56 Gbps)
Stay tuned to the Samtec blog for additional details and videos highlighting the performance of this exciting new platform.
AI-based Hardware Design
One of the really interesting panel discussions held at DesignCon 2019 discussed the effects of AI on design. It was entitled Real World Cloud & Machine Learning/AI Deployment for Hardware Design.
Experts from HPE, Ansys, Intel PSG, Cadence and Synopsys presented their findings research and findings on the topic. The EDA companies offered compelling examples of how AI machine learning can shorten design cycles. One typcial PCB scenario took 120 hours using legacy design technique. Using an AI/ML-based systems only took 30 minutes.
Obviously, this and many other examples show the benefit of AI/ML-influenced design. One challenge to widespread adoption is the amount of training data available for the AI/ML algorithms.
A popular application of AI/ML is image identification. It is very easy to train an AI/ML system to recognize a “cat”. The reason? Thousands if not millions of cat pictures are easily accessible via the web. Are 56 Gbps PAM4 PCB design data sets readily available? Not so much.
What’s next?
Stay tuned to the Samtec blog for additional highlights from DesignCon 2019. Numerous videos, interviews, demos and other details will be posted in the coming weeks.
