Parade PS8936 PCIe 5.0/CXL Retimer Chip

Parade Technologies, Ltd. introduces the PS8936 retimer chip developed for PCIe Rev. 5.0 and Compute Express Link (CXL), supporting 16 bidirectional lanes.

In addition to supporting the 32Gb/s data rate offered by the PCIe 5.0 spec, it also supports 2.5, 5, 8 and 16Gb/s for backward compatibility with earlier PCIe revisions.

The PS8936 is the PCIe Gen 5 retimer addition to the company’s PS8926 and PS8925 PCIe 4.0 16-lane and 4-lane retimer family currently in production and PS8570 PCIe 4.0 4-channel linear redriver in sampling stage. The PS8936 is in compliance with the PCIe 5.0 spec and has been tested in multiple OEM systems and PCIe 5.0 CPU platforms. It is designed for use in enterprise systems including servers and storage, and in high-performance workstations. Retimers are needed in high-speed data channels to maintain signal integrity across longer PCB traces, connectors, and cables. The doubling of data rate that PCIe 5.0 offers over the PCIe 4.0 comes with the even tougher challenge of error-free signal propagation, which is why retimers are an integral part of the PCIe 5.0 specification and system implementation.

“PCIe has always been an important interface because it’s the technology leader that other high-speed data interfaces tend to follow,” said Jimmy Chiu, EVP, marketing. “Parade has a long history in supplying PCIe repeaters, starting with PCIe Gen 2, Gen 3 and Gen 4 in the past. Our success in development of the PCIe Gen 5 retimer also provides us optimized analog IP that can be leveraged for supporting the increasing data rates of other standards such as USB4 v2, DisplayPort 2.1, and HDMI.”

The PS8936 includes both adaptive CTLE and DFE equalization to compensate for up to 36dB channel loss at Nyquist. In addition to supporting PCIe spec-compliant retimer operation for common reference clock, SRIS and SRNS configurations, it can also enable near-zero latency bit-level retiming. It supports -40°C to +85°C ambient temperature range.

It is available in an 8.9×22.8mm 354-ball BGA package and is sampling.