From: Kevin Normoyle ([email protected])
Date: Fri Nov 05 1999 - 14:12:37 PST
> > The 240 Mhz part is to buffer the clocks from clock synthesizer
> >to multiple ASICs as a clock source. The ASICs have 3.3v IO but
> >are 5V tolerate. I saw and IDT part# IDT74ALVC16244A that may
> >be promising. Have you had any experience with that part?
> >
> > Do you know of any GaAs vendor that may provide faster
> >parts for my needs? I wonder what people use for buffering
> >the clocks for AMD's 200 Mhz system clock or DDR clocks?
I know jack about designing clocks for AMD athlon system interfaces,
so I'll comment :) (I'd be interested if others have more info)
But from what I read, the "system clock" is distributed using
a 100mhz clock? There are strobes for the source synchronous
interfaces, but if you start fanning those out to multiple parts
I can't imagine that the existing timing analysis for data vs strobe
would still be valid?
I would think that AMD has or should be spec'ing what you can or
can't do.
You're really asking basic questions about the Athlon system interface:
how it's extended to multiple chips?, and how is clock buffering and
possible multiple loads on the "bus" signals handled. (at least
that's what it sounds like).
If so, you may have created a system that is a design point not covered
by the AMD timing analysis, and you may have some system analysis/design
to do before you decide how to distribute your strobes/clocks.
I don't know if the Athlon interface is publicly available. It's
supposed
to be similar or the same as the early/current DEC Alpha interconnect.
You might dig up literature referring to Alpha to see how they handled
the issue. Although I believe they typically interface the CPU to either
a single controller or bus interface chip also.
I think some of the press about AMD's 200mhz "bus" has been misleading.
My reading is that it's a point-to-point interconnect protocol. I'm
interested in whether that's true or not.
Although maybe you're just supposed to be distributing a 100mhz clock
and using a pll inside your asic to get a 200mhz clock from that?
-kevin
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