AthenaCORE LR MSS Platform

The AthenaCORE Long-Reach (LR) Multi-Standard-Serdes (MSS) IP is the highest performance SerDes in the Alphawave Semi product portfolio. It is a highly configurable IP that supports the most leading edge NRZ, PAM and Coherent data center standards and applications from 1Gbps to 224Gbps for Ethernet, PCIe and CXL.

AthenaCORE DSP PHY

AthenaCORE is the next generation SerDes platform from Alphawave Semi architected from the ground up to address the next paradigm in interconnectivity: 224G serial links. Five main application scenarios served by AthenaCORE SerDes platform variants are:

  1. AthenaCORE: 1-224Gb/s long-reach multi-standard optical and electrical SerDes for Ethernet applications
  2. Optical IM-DD: 50-224Gbps optical optimized SerDes with MLSD for data center applications
  3. PCIe7/CXL: 1-128Gb/s PCIe Gen1 – Gen7 long-reach electrical SerDes
  4. CPO/NPO: power optimized 50-224Gb/s medium reach (MR/VSR) electrical SerDes for emerging CPO/NPO applications
  5. Coherent Lite: Coherent DSP optical optimized SerDes for data center applications

Protocol Features (ANLT, LLPD)

AthenaCORE includes protocol features critical in next generation technologies: ANLT (802.3 AutoNegotiation, Link Training) and PCIe-critical low-latency phase detector, fast rate changes and low power modes.

Most Likely Sequence Detector (MLSD)

MLSD uses Viterbi Detection to make slicing decisions based on a sequence of data symbols. MLSD minimizes decision error across a sequence of symbols and improves the Signal-to-Noise Ratio and Bit Error Rate of systems.

Flexible D/A

The AthenaCORE MSS IP has options for a standard long reach swing, a high swing driver for optical applications, and a short reach optimized driver to optimize PPA.

Master controller

The AthenaCORE DSP Master Controller includes:

  • All required training is integrated, without the need of external RAM
  • Non-destructive eye monitoring
  • 1+D Partial Response Coding

Specifications

Receive Equalization

Designed for closed eye, backplane systems greater than 40db of insertion loss at Nyquist (53GHz) for PAM4 with high MLSD. Includes blind adaptive equalizer and channel estimator.

Output Driver Voltage

Programmable 400 – 3000 mVdiff-pkpk (inner eye)

Optional Optical Non-Linearity Correction Features