Technology

Seamlessly integrated digital controller and PHY solution for next generation PC and peripheral interconnect

Los Altos, California, United States – 09/25/2006
Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq: RMBS), one of the world’s premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed chip interfaces, today announced the availability of its Gen2 Total Solution silicon demo, a complete communications interface solution featuring an integrated digital controller and PHY implementation for the next generation of PCI Express® technology. At a 5.0 Gbps transfer rate, Gen2 offers twice the bandwidth performance of its predecessor. The Gen2 demo will be introduced at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), September 26-28, 2006; Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA.

Rambus Gen2 is a complete communications interface solution for the expected PCI Express Base Specification, revision 2.0 requirements. Rambus PHYs support the PMA and PCS layers of the PCI Express specification. Rambus digital controllers are available as root complex, switch port, end point and hybrid (end point/root complex) device types. The advanced features, bandwidth and scalability of Gen2 meet the high performance requirements of next-generation graphics, desktop, mobile, server, and consumer platforms.

“The Rambus Gen2 PHY represents the latest technology advancement in PCI Express, supporting up to 160 Gbps bandwidth,” said Rich Warmke, Director of Marketing for Platform Solutions at Rambus Inc. “In addition, the Gen2 PHY functions as a multi-protocol cell for Gigabit Ethernet, XAUI and double XAUI applications.”

The Gen2 demo shows a PCI Express PHY implemented in TSMC’s 90nm GT process technology. Demo features include:

• 5.0 Gbps transfer rate, shown in x1 lane width
• “Board-to cable-to board” data
• Scope showing PHY eye diagram
• DLL and TL transactions demonstrated with LeCroy protocol analyzer
• Digital controller for expected PCI Express Gen2 specification (Data Link Layer and Transaction Layer) demonstrated in FPGA

An integral part of the Gen2 demo will be the PETracer™ Gen2 Summit x 16 protocol analyzer from LeCroy Corporation, a leading supplier of oscilloscopes and serial data test solutions. The first PCI Express analyzer to support 5.0 Gbps per lane, the PETracer Gen2 Summit features real-time monitoring tools that analyze response and latency of transactions, data throughput, and link utilization.

“As a strategic customer for LeCroy, Rambus was one of the first companies to bring up their Gen2 system for PCI Express with the new and advanced PETracer Gen2 Summit analyzer,” said John Wiedemeier, PCI Express Product Marketing Manager at LeCroy Corporation. “Rambus customers will benefit from validated and proven solutions that have undergone rigorous testing and analysis that incorporated real-time statistics, protocol traffic summaries, detailed error reports, powerful scripting, and the ability to create user-defined test reports.”

Continuing its tradition of technology leadership, Rambus is already developing PHY technology platforms to meet the data rate requirements for future generations of PCI Express. A 10-12 Gbps test vehicle targeting Gen3 data rates is expected to be ready by early 2008.

About Rambus Inc.

Rambus is one of the world’s premier technology licensing companies specializing in the invention and design of high-speed chip interfaces. Since its founding in 1990, the Company’s patented innovations, breakthrough technologies and renowned integration expertise have helped industry-leading chip and system companies bring superior products to market. Rambus’ technology and products solve customers’ most complex chip and system-level interface challenges enabling unprecedented performance in computing, communications and consumer electronics applications. Rambus licenses both its world-class patent portfolio as well as its family of leadership and industry-standard interface products. Headquartered in Los Altos, California, Rambus has regional offices in North Carolina, India, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. Additional information is available at www.rambus.com.

PCI Express and PCI-SIG are registered trademarks of the PCI Express Special Interest Group. The PCI-SIG is the special interest group that owns and manages PCI specifications as open industry standards.

Rambus and the Rambus logo are registered trademarks of Rambus Inc. All other trade names are the service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

XCG supports high-volume production infrastructure for XDR memory solutions

Los Altos, California, United States – 08/07/2006
Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS), one of the world’s premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed chip interfaces, today announced the latest version of its XDR™ Clock Generator (XCG), revision 1.0, a clocking solution that provides the necessary clock signals to support XDR memory systems. The XCG provides clocks that meet the specifications for the XDR DRAM device, today’s fastest high-speed memory IC offering 6.4 GB/sec of peak bandwidth on a single, 2-byte wide 3.2 GHz component.

The XCG is an off-the-shelf clock generator solution provided by several leading IC companies for a broad range of high performance clocking interface applications. The XCG revision 1.0 is based on the collaborative work between Rambus and XCG suppliers. Extensive in-system testing and demanding qualification efforts have led to the refinement of the XCG specification and resulted in a clock generator that is ready to support mass production of high frequency XDR systems for graphics processing, consumer electronics, and computing applications.

The XDR Clock Generator supports the complete XDR memory subsystem as well as the industry’s fastest processor bus interface, the 400 MHz to 8.0 GHz Rambus FlexIO™, by using a reference clock input with or without spread spectrum modulation. Major XCG components include a phase lock loop, a bypass multiplexer and four differential output buffers.

“The latest version of the Rambus XDR Clock Generator represents a state-of-the-art clocking solution that meets the high performance, high bandwidth requirements of today’s most demanding applications such as graphics processing and consumer electronics,” said David Nguyen, vice president of engineering at Rambus Inc. “As a vital component of XDR DRAM technology, XCG supports a total memory system solution that achieves an order of magnitude higher performance than today’s standard memories.”

Contained in a 28-pin TSSOP package that includes four differential clock outputs, the XCG features:

• 300-800 MHz clock source for XDR memory subsystems and FlexIO processor bus interface
• Quad (open drain) differential output drivers
• Spread spectrum reference clock input to minimize EMI (Electromagnetic Interference)
• Differential or single-ended reference clock input: 100 / 133 MHz
• SMBus features: programmable frequency multiplier, select any one to four outputs and mode of operation
• Support for frequency multipliers: 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9/2, 15/2 and 15/4.
• Support for systems not requiring synchronization of the XDR clock to another system clock
• Supply Voltage: VDD = 2.5V ± 0.125V

The XCG for use in systems that incorporate Rambus’ XDR memory solutions is available from the following leading manufacturers: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, IDT (Integrated Device Technology, Inc.), and Texas Instruments Incorporated. For more information on the complete XDR memory solution including the XCG, the XDR I/O (XIO) controller interface cell to XDR-based DRAM memory and the XDR memory controller (XMC), please visit www.rambus.com.

Rambus and the Rambus logo are registered trademarks of Rambus Inc. XDR and FlexIO are trademarks of Rambus Inc. All other trade names are the service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Industry-leading integrated controller and PHY deliver superior results in broad range of applications

[Update] Read our primer: Rambus launched PCI Express 5 »

Los Altos, California, United States – 08/08/2005
Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS), one of the world’s premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed chip interfaces, today announced the availability of its fully integrated PCI Express* solution. This complete solution consists of silicon-proven digital controllers and PHY cells meeting the PCI Express 1.1 base specification. Supported by a PCI Express evaluation kit, the Rambus integrated solution is ideal for customers searching for end-to-end implementation and validation, which eliminates the interoperability risks and complexities associated with multi-vendor IP.

Rambus’s PCI Express solution includes vertically integrated testing features to help customers facilitate system bring-up and debug for improved production test coverage. The Rambus solution allows design optimizations to be made across the PHY and logic layers to result in lower power, area and latency for cost- and performance-sensitive applications.

“Our complete solution with both the digital controller and PHY ensures our customers can get their products to market faster by reducing integration and validation risks as well as providing value-added features that go beyond the current specifications,” said Laura Stark, vice president of the Platform Solutions Group at Rambus. “Designers are concerned about getting their PCI Express implementation to work the first time. With our solution they have a reliable, fully verified and interoperability-tested solution that greatly reduces the risk of integrating third-party IP.”

For a streamlined design-in experience, Rambus offers developers the PCI Express evaluation kit, a system level evaluation platform that supports:

• Electrical characterization;
• Compliance and interoperability validation;
• Performance evaluation and optimization;
• Application and software development;
• Thorough validation of the target application

Rambus PCI Express digital controllers are highly configurable, and are delivered with a complete test environment, test cases and synthesis environment for maximum ease of integration. Rambus PCI Express PHY cells are available on multiple foundry and captive processes at process nodes ranging from 180nm to 65nm. Numerous Rambus customers are in production in high-volume applications such as graphics, chipsets, storage, and communications ICs.

Rambus has also demonstrated its Turbo PCI Express platform with serial links operating at 5.0Gbps and 6.25Gbps data rates to meet future PCI Express requirements. The Rambus PCI Express solution is represented with multiple entries on the PCI-SIG Integrators List, having passed compliance and interoperability testing by Rambus customers and partners. For more information on Rambus’s complete PCI Express offering, visit www.rambus.com/products/pciexpress.