From owner-stds-802-3-hssg@ieee.org Wed Mar 1 15:04 GMT 2000 Received: from gatekeeper.pdd.3com.com (gatekeeper [161.71.169.3]) by isolan.pdd.3com.com (8.9.1b+Sun/8.9.3) with ESMTP id PAA12587; Wed, 1 Mar 2000 15:04:47 GMT Received: from ruebert.ieee.org ([199.172.136.3]) by gatekeeper.pdd.3com.com (Netscape Messaging Server 3.6) with ESMTP id AAA1F19; Wed, 1 Mar 2000 15:03:02 +0000 Received: by ruebert.ieee.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) id JAA28485; Wed, 1 Mar 2000 09:23:04 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.20000301055952.00a78700@mail.bayarea.net> X-Sender: jmw@mail.bayarea.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.0.58 Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2000 06:22:42 -0800 To: JR Rivers , Vivek Telang , "stds-802-3-hssg@ieee.org" From: jmw Subject: RE: PAM-5, what are your BERs ? In-Reply-To: <4.1.20000229180017.00d72bd0@smbmail3> References: <01BF82B7.070ECDE0@pc24.cicada-semi.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-stds-802-3-hssg@ieee.org Precedence: bulk X-Resent-To: Multiple Recipients X-Listname: stds-802-3-hssg X-Info: [Un]Subscribe requests to majordomo@majordomo.ieee.org X-Moderator-Address: stds-802-3-hssg-approval@majordomo.ieee.org X-Lines: 39 Status: RO Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 1401 JR -- my semi-biased view: i contend it can be built in any manufacturing technology that will deliver the performance required at the cost target you like. a 5-PAM receiver built of monolithic CMOS can do that nicely, when feature size is on the order of 0.18um to 0.25um, and there are more than a few foundry service houses that can offer that geometry scale (which is a critical concern for 'fabless' semiconductor houses). BiCMOS and GaAs both outperform CMOS at the serial line rate, but neither of them is as widely available nor can they compete as well in complex back-end signal processing functions -- equalization, error correction, general DSP. it is my impression that many new products start in one technology (probably for "time to market" issues) but eventually wind-up in CMOS. finally, there are probably many ways one can build a fast ADC but the more difficult challenge -- for 10Gbd x-PAM -- is in building a fast, linear DAC. and now, back to morning coffee... -- J M Wincn P O Box 631 Cupertino, CA 95015-0631 Email: jmw@bayarea.net Voice: 408-725-0846 Fax: 408-873-0293 Cell: 408-394-5283 At 06:02 PM 29-02-2000 -0800, JR Rivers wrote: >Not to throw water on an oil fire, by why does the transceiver have to be >CMOS? If my memory serves me correctly, most of the SERDES devices used in >GE were BiCMOS or GaAs until recently. > >JR