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Digital and Analog Technology Expertise Forges TI's Leadership in Data Transfer

An Overview of TI's Data Transmission Product Line

DALLAS (Nov. 11, 1996) -- Thirty years ago, before anyone had heard of the Internet and when computers were anything but personal, Texas Instruments (TI) was already a leader in the technologies that form the basis for much of today's information infrastructure.

In today's information-hungry society, transmitting data the several inches between computer memory and display screen is just as critical as sending it halfway around the globe. Over the past three decades, TI has combined its expertise in high-speed digital and analog technologies to push the capabilities and extend the performance parameters of practically every data transmission standard, including RS-232, RS-423, RS-422, RS-485, Fibre Channel, LVDS (low voltage differential signaling), IEEE 1394 (Firewire), USB (Universal Serial Bus), GeoPort and IrDA (Infrared Data Association). The Data Transmission Department of TI Semiconductor's Mixed-Signal and Logic Products Business has the necessary depth of expertise in both analog and digital technologies to push the limits of speed, distance, power and cost, and still meet the requirements of the industry standards.

Meeting Customer Needs

Besides providing advanced data transmission technology, other factors have contributed to TI's success. TI's stringent quality assurance programs and its global manufacturing capacity of 30 fabrication facilities worldwide help its customers bring their products to market within shrinking time-to-market windows. All of these factors have contributed to the company achieving a 97 percent on-time delivery rate, one of the highest in the industry.

The Data Transmission Department has also led the development of many of the communication and electrical standards which affect its products. Adherence to these standards assures the group's products will function properly in systems comprised of components from diverse manufacturers.

Pushing the Speed Limits

As the performance of computer processors and memories accelerates, moving data into and out of (I/O) computer systems with the utmost speed has become imperative. Otherwise, a bottleneck might develop and the fastest processor would be brought down to the speed of the system's slowest component part.

Fibre Channel (ANSI X3T11) has been defined as the basis for a next generation computer and storage subsystem. Its speeds of 1.0625 gigabits per second (Gbps) with plans for two and four Gbps speeds in the future will satisfy the I/O demands of the fastest computer and mass storage systems for years to come. Unlike the parallel SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) standard which is widely used today, Fibre Channel is a serial technology. The serial nature of Fibre Channel simplifies the physical interconnection associated with parallel I/O standards.

TI has announced the availability of samples of a one-Gbps Fibre Channel transceiver. TI's BiCMOS process allows it to offer cost-effective and very high-speed Fibre Channel devices in volume. The current competitive components are produced using the very expensive gallium arsenide (GaAs) process or a lower-yielding CMOS process.

TI also supports other emerging computer system I/O standards, such as the high-speed IEEE 1394 (Firewire) and Universal Serial Bus (USB), with a full line of devices.

Supporting Current Standards

The department developed the industry's first nine-channel device for Differential Fast SCSI and the Intelligent Peripheral Interface (IPI). Recently, support for Differential Fast-20 SCSI was added to the product family. These devices are optimized for 16-bit differential SCSI because only three devices are needed instead of 27 single-channel packages.

TI is a major supplier to the personal computer industry where the RS-232 communication standard has been used for years to interface peripheral equipment to PCs. The company's RS-232 product family continues to extend the capabilities of the RS-232 standard with higher speeds, reduced electro-magnetic interference (EMI) and a wider selection of driver/receiver combinations. Because of the wide range of RS-232 transceivers offered by TI, a solution is available for practically any application no matter what the price/performance goal.

Other standards, such as RS-485 and RS-422, are differential technologies and are used in a broad selection of general purpose applications, including industrial control, telecommunications, point-of-sale terminals, alarm systems and other environments that are high in electrical interference. Transmission speeds up to 30 Million bits per second (Mbps) or distances to several kilometers are supported. TI's RS-422 and RS-485 product family includes many combinations of drivers, receivers and transceivers.

Typical of TI's leading product offering is a recent addition to the RS-485 product family, a differential transceiver with integrated transient voltage suppression of up to 400 Watts (W) peak. The device reduces a data transmission system's cost by eliminating the need for discrete clamping diodes or the use of expensive multichip modules for full isolation.

Pushing the Limits of Data Transfer Technology

A new transmission technology known as low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) has found initial application as the linking mechanism between a portable computer's graphics subsystem and the system's flat panel display screen. When LVDS technology is used in this application, it conforms to the EIA/TIA-644 specification for a 234.5 megabytes per second (MBps) link over a 100-OHM cabling interface. The low power consumption and reduced EMI noise of the LVDS technology make it ideal for portable computers. TI's trademark for this technology is FlatLink.

When data must be moved inside a computer or communications system, the effective distance supported by the transmission standard become less critical, while other factors, such as speed and power, take on greater importance.

TI has recently introduced the first two devices in its FlatLink product family, a 3.3-V LVDS transmitter and receiver. These devices are suited for SVGA or XGA displays and are compatible with either 18- or 24-bit color.

For years, PCs have used universal asynchronous receiver/transmitters (UARTs) for serial-to-parallel and parallel-to-serial data conversion. Since a PC's processor uses parallel data, a UART is needed to convert the processor's parallel data to one of the serial formats used by the system's various I/O ports.

TI's Data Transmission Department has developed a varied selection of industry-leading UARTs to meet the needs of every PC application. The sophistication of TI's UARTs have kept pace with the increasing speeds of PC processors and of the systems themselves. UARTs that are integrated with deep FIFO memory, interface logic and other features have assured TI's place in high-speed PCs, fax/modems, data concentrators, serial I/O expansion boards or any application requiring an enhanced serial port. The group's UART family includes devices for credit-card-size PCMCIA add-in boards for portable computers, PCs with Plug-and-Play I/O subsystems, PCI bus-based PCs as well as UARTs that will interface the PC to an infrared controller for remotely transmitting data through the air as light.

One of the department's key strengths is its ability to integrate extra value into its products. For example, a recently introduced dual UART can either output data through two RS-232 or two infrared communication ports, or one of each. Additionally, the device has a high-performance IEEE 1284 parallel port that is compatible with the parallel interface that is used on most PCs for printer connections. This high level of integration provides a PC with a parallel port and two serial ports in one device.

Getting Data Into and Out of the Box

Infrared data communication is becoming increasingly important not only in the PC industry, but in many industrial and consumer applications. The standard for infrared data transmission is known as IrDA because the specification has been defined through the Infrared Data Association (IrDA). An IrDA interface on a PC offers a simple, inexpensive way to cordlessly connect PCs, notebooks, peripherals and other electronic devices. A printer with IrDA capability, for example, can be used as a walk-up print server for notebook computers or other portable systems that have IrDA.

A family of IrDA controller devices has been introduced by TI. The first such device is capable of data transfer speeds of up to 115Kbps. The device will operate with either a 3.3- or a 5-V power supply and can decode both positive and negative transceiver pulses. Future plans for the group's IrDA product family call for devices capable of higher transfer speeds as well as the integration of greater functionality.

Although many I/O standards have been specified by industry groups or professional associations, some standards are defined by consortia of interested vendor companies. The I/O standard used by Power PCs and Apple Macintosh systems is known as GeoPort. It was originally defined by Apple and later adopted by IBM and Motorola as the high-speed serial I/O for the Power PC.

The Data Transmission Department's experience with Apple systems dates back to the development of transceivers for AppleTalk and LocalTalk. Most recently, the group has introduced a family of GeoPort transceivers for implementation in host computer systems and peripheral equipment such as printers, scanners, digital cameras and others.All of TI's GeoPort transceivers are backwardly compatible with AppleTalk and LocalTalk. The GeoPort devices take full advantage of GeoPort's 4 Mbps data transfer speeds. The most recent addition to the GeoPort product family is a peripheral transceiver for embedding into external equipment. The device offers a high degree of protection from electrostatic discharge (ESD) and consumes little power from a single 5V supply, making it well-suited for mobile, battery-operated systems. Other devices in the product family include low-power, dual power supply transceivers for both host systems and peripherals.

Positioned for Leadership

Trademarks:
FlatLink is a trademark of Texas Instruments Incorporated.

Macintosh, GeoPort, AppleTalk, LocalTalk and Firewire are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.

Power PC is a trademark of IBM Corporation.