DALLAS (February 20, 1995) -- Designers of high-performance computer and communications systems, including those based on the VMEbus standard, will be able to increase the performance of their systems with new Texas Instruments Enhanced Transceiver Logic (ETL) bus interface devices. These devices will maintain compatibility with systems based on Transistor-to-Transistor Logic (TTL) bus interface devices.
The new ETL devices are a part of TI's Widebus(TM) family of logic. The two devices are designated the ABTE16245, a 16-bit switching bus transceiver which can be configured as two 8-bit transceivers or one 16-bit transceiver, and the ABTE16246, an 8-bit open-collector / 3-bit tri-state control line transceiver which was designed specifically for VME64 applications.
Because ETL complies with the new proposed VME64 extensions specification, it provides an effective migration to the higher backplane bus bandwidth of VME64. For applications where the system must be in operation most, if not all, of the time, such as telecommunications switches, networking hubs and routers and high-availability minicomputers, ETL-based backplanes support live insertion, or the ability to insert a non-powered board into a powered backplane with no effect on the active signals on the backplane. This allows the system to continue to function while boards are inserted and removed.
"FORCE COMPUTERS and the VME industry in general will be making a major push into telecommunications and other applications requiring high availability platforms. New ETL logic is a key enabling technology for this to happen. Without ETL, un-powered VME boards could not be inserted or removed from live VME64 backplanes," said Wayne Fisher, FORCE's Director of Strategic Programs. "ETL will also allow VME64 to achieve much higher throughputs due to the higher drive and reduced receiver thresholds. VME is poised to continue growing well into the 21st century, thanks in large part to ETL technology."
The new TI ETL logic devices are able to reject much of the electrical noise commonly found in high-bandwidth systems such as ground bounce. In addition, ETL features very low capacitance, which reduces loading and transmission line effects. These devices also have high drive outputs, giving an ETL-based board the ability to switch a large electrical load on the incident transmission wave.
A bus-hold feature incorporated in the devices retains the last active state of the bus, eliminating the need for expensive, discrete pull-up resistors.
"ETL logic lets designers quickly and effectively upgrade the performance of systems that have been based on TTL logic and still maintain compatibility with the installed base of TTL systems," said Charles Ajouri, TI strategic marketing specialist. "This extends the effective life of many proprietary systems based on TTL logic, as well as VMEbus-based systems."
The ETL devices are fabricated using TI's EPIC-IIB(TM) process to significantly reduce power dissipation. The devices come in Shrink Small-Outline Packages (SSOP) and Thin Shrink Small-Outline Packages (TSSOP).
The SN74ABTE16245 and SN74ABTE16246 are available now from Texas Instruments and from TI authorized distributors. Suggested resale pricing in quantities of 1,000 is $4.35 for the '16245 and $5.85 for the '16246.
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