Intersil's Active Cable IC Solution Designed to Support Thunderbolt™ Technology

Next Generation 40nm 20Gbps Technology

Based on advanced 40nm technology, Intersil's active cable solution for use with Thunderbolt technology delivers enhanced performance to the new high–speed I/O standard. Thunderbolt is a revolutionary I/O interface that supports high-resolution displays and high-performance data devices through a single, compact port. It sets new standards for speed, flexibility, and simplicity and now, with Intersil's new solution, sets the stage for an unprecedented price point in connecting high-speed Thunderbolt-compatible peripherals.

What is Thunderbolt?

Thunderbolt is an advanced high-speed I/O interface developed by Intel Corporation and first introduced in the PC industry by Apple Inc. The interface consists of two differential 10.3125 Gbps full-duplex lanes and is used to tunnel PCI Express and DisplayPort protocols over a thin copper cable up to 3 meters long, or a long fiber optic cable.

Thunderbolt technology enables flexible new designs by allowing multiple, high-performance, PCI Express and DisplayPort devices to attach to a PC through a single physical connector, eliminating the need for multiple I/O ports on a PC.

Why Choose Intersil's Active Cable for use with Thunderbolt Technology?

Intersil's active cable total solution includes the industry's only 40nm high-speed signal processing IC, the ISL37231 and its companion power management IC, the ISL80083. The chipset provides a complete, highly integrated solution enabling cable manufacturers to build high-performance, cost-effective active cables. The integrated microcontroller in ISL37231 as well as the integrated high-efficiency 2.5MHz synchronous step-down converter, a low-input low dropout linear regulator, level shifter and input rail selector greatly minimize the number of external components required for the production of an active cable module, thus reducing the cost and improving the manufacturability of these cables.

Intersil's active cable solution designed to support Thunderbolt technology breaks the cost barrier to adoption with the following features:

• Smarter Integration
  • Combination of 40nm and advanced power management techniques yield the integration of key
  • components such as microcontroller rail select, level shifting and eye monitor

• Lowest Power
  • At less than 450 mW power dissipation, the ISL37231 solves thermal issues that have previously
  • demanded larger connectors and expensive heat sinking
  • Enables new form factors with even smaller footprints
  •  Improves battery life in mobile applications by as much as 50%

• Patented-Pending Cable Compensation Techniques
  •  Allows cable manufacturers to use inexpensive bulk cable with enhanced yield

• Built-In Test
  • Removes expensive manual testing and time consuming techniques with its embedded processor,

PRBS generator, and error checker

Coming Soon – Host Power Solution Designed to Support Thunderbolt Technology:

Provides the needed power to the Thunderbolt-compatible cables and remote devices. 

ISL37231: 10.3125 Gbps Retiming Dual-Channel Transceiver

The ISL37231 is an advanced dual-channel, dual-simplex retimer for active copper cable applications. The device contains high performance mixed signal processing technology to provide a maximally robust signal integrity solution for datacenter and consumer applications. Such processing includes 30dB of media-optimized equalization, and reset of the jitter budget via retiming.

ISL80083: 2.5MHz Integrated Power System Controller with I2C Compatible Interface

ISL80083 is an integrated mini Power Management IC (mini-PMIC) optimized for powering the ISL37231 transceiver in Thunderbolt cables. It can also be used in applications using a single Li-Ion or Li-Polymer cell battery to power multiple voltage rails.