3 Description

The DS160PT801 is a high-performance eight-lane (16-channel) PCI-Express protocol-aware retimer supporting all standard PCIe data rates up to 16 GT/s. It is used to extend the reach and robustness of high-speed PCIe serial links, from chip-to-chip motherboard links to more complex multi-connector system topologies.

The DS160PT801 supports both common-clock and independent reference clock architectures, with and without spread-spectrum clocking. This allows for maximum flexibility in defining the system clock architecture.

The eight lanes in the DS160PT801 can be bifurcated into two x4 links to support different system topologies.

A compact yet easy-to-manufacture BGA package provides excellent thermal performance while enabling optimal placement in space-constrained applications like 1RU riser cards. This feature reduces overall solution size, PCB routing complexity, and BOM cost.

Diagnostic capabilities include in-band receiver margining, out-of-band non-destructive horizontal or vertical eye margin monitor, receiver loopback, encoding error detection, and on die temperature sensor. These features help gauge link margin and can be used to monitor system health over time.

The DS160PT801 is configurable through SMBus interface. The Initial configuration can be automatically loaded from external EEPROM.