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national.com/LVDS
Physical connection of multiple drivers and receivers to a common signal bus presents unique challenges to successful
multidrop-topology designs. e major challenge that system designers encounter are the impedance discontinuities that
device loading and device connections (stubs) introduce on the common bus. Matching the impedance of the loaded bus
and using signal drivers with controlled signal edges are the keys to error-free signal transmissions in multipoint topologies.
Two versions of LVDS have been optimized for multipoint: Bus LVDS (B-LVDS) and Multipoint LVDS (M-LVDS).
B-LVDS shares many of the characteristics of LVDS but has much higher current drive (10 mA typical) and controlled
(slower) edge rates. B-LVDS is designed specifically for driving multiple loads and in a well-designed backplane can support
up to 32 loads. B-LVDS-controlled edge rates help reduce reflections in multidrop configurations with multiple loads and
associated stubs. e slower edges limit B-LVDS to slower data rates, typically below 1 Gbps.
e growth of B-LVDS in multidrop applications prompted the creation of an industry standard for an optimized version
of LVDS intended for such networks. National Semiconductor co-authored the standard that became TIA/EIA-899 and the
technology Multipoint LVDS (M-LVDS). M-LVDS includes all of the desirable attributes for multidrop including increased
drive, slow controlled edges, tighter input thresholds, and a wider common mode. M-LVDS is capable of driving 32 loads at
speeds up to 250 Mbps.
2.3 SerDes Architectures
Two obvious ways to add bandwidth are to either increase the bus speed or add parallel channels. Prior to the advent of
high-speed interface, the latter approach was often selected, resulting in very wide Low-Voltage Transistor-to-Transistor
Logic (LVTTL) buses and backplanes. e technique of combining slower LVTTL signals into a single-bit stream (serial-
izer), transporting the data at high speed and then redistributing at the receiver (deserializer), is very common and often
referred to as Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes). e different SerDes architectures and advantages of each are covered in the
SerDes Architectures Section on page 19.
2.4 Mixing Signaling Technologies
It is quite common for hardware platforms to have multiple signaling requirements for clocks, data, and control signals.
In modular systems, card-to-card or box-to-box communication may involve different vendors and technologies. For
these reasons, LVDS, LVPECL, and CML often coexist in the same platform, and translation between different signaling
technologies is a necessary component of system design.
One approach to simplify translation is to AC couple the two networks using capacitors in each of the differential channels.
is technique eliminates DC offsets and threshold differences, however AC coupling requires DC-balanced data. For
non-DC-balanced data, various termination networks allow translation between technologies. For a full discussion on
translation networks, see Termination and Translation, page 31.
2.5 Selecting an Interface Technology
e selection of an interface device or technology is an important one. Error-free and reliable signal transmission is a critical
component of many systems. e first decisions are often the topology: Will the network be point-to-point or multidrop?
Will SerDes be required? Bandwidth, power, and jitter budgets then need to be considered.
LVDS is the most common high-speed interface and has the dual advantages of low power and wide common mode.
LVPECL generally uses additional power but supports very high data rates with excellent jitter. CML devices offer similar
performance to LVPECL and have the advantage of a simple and usually integrated termination.
Network Topology