Credo Announces First 56G SerDes Technology Based on Conventional NRZ Modulation

Measures Performance up to 57.5Gbps

HONG KONG, CHINA and MILPITAS, CA-- September 9, 2014 - Credo Semiconductor, a global innovation leader in Serializer-Deserializer (SerDes) technology, today announced the industry's first SerDes transceiver technology that can deliver speeds up to 57.5Gbps using NRZ signaling. NRZ signaling has been shown to provide significant power, area and cost advantages over alternative modulation schemes, but until now, has only been seen as viable at speeds up to 28Gbps. Credo was able to clock its device at 57.5 Gbps, achieving 50 Gbps speeds across a channel with more than 30 dB loss at Nyquist frequency.

"By delivering a single lane of over 56 Gbps of transmission capability, system architects can provide increased system performance and help to enable next-generation 50G, 100G and 400G platforms," said Bill Brennan, CEO of Credo Semiconductor. "We've seen significant interest in the technology, not only from our customer base, but also from key standards bodies. We are encouraged to see that NRZ signaling at 56Gbps is under consideration by the OIF CEI-56G working group and the IEEE 400G task force for board-level, chip-to-chip interconnections."

"We see 56Gbps SerDes as an important enabling technology for 400G Ethernet, and Credo is first to demonstrate working transceivers in silicon," said Bob Wheeler, principal analyst at The Linley Group. "Just when many engineers saw NRZ as reaching the end of the road, Credo's crafty analog designers showed it still has a future."

Credo intends to make the SerDes available as both IP and fully manufactured ASIC devices which can be used on line cards, in optical modules, in active copper cables, and in the next generation of switching, routing, and compute ASICs. The current version of the 57.5Gbps SerDes has been architected and manufactured using TSMC's mature 40nm-G process. The IP is currently being ported to TSMC's 16nmFF+ process.

In addition to the break through NRZ performance, the Credo SerDes features low jitter, low power, and low latency, as well as advanced TX pre-emphasis equalization, RX CTLE (continuous time linear equalization) and DFE (decision feedback equalization).

Credo will offer a private evaluation to interested parties. Companies interested in learning more about Credo's current silicon and intellectual property engagement options, as well as future developments should contact Sales@credosemi.com.

About Credo Semiconductor
Credo Semiconductor is a provider of high performance mixed-signal integrated circuits and IP targeting the data center and enterprise networking markets. The company's SerDes technologies enable optimized solutions for leading edge speed, power, and signal processing requirements. For more information: www.credosemi.com