Intersil's Active Cable IC Solution: Thunderbolt0 pages
Intersil Signal Integrity & Power Management Products
Intersil’s active cable IC solution
designed to support Thunderbolt™
technology
What is Thunderbolt?
Thunderbolt is a recently introduced advanced high-speed
I/O interface for the consumer PC industry. It 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.
AI1
RX1
BO1
TX2
AI2
RX2
BO2
PWR
EQ CDR DE
AO1
DE CDR EQ
EQ CDR DE
AO2
DE CDR EQ
ISL80083
EEPROM
By integrating its analog ICs inside cabling interconnects, Intersil is able to achieve unsurpassed
improvements in reach, power consumption, latency, and cable gauge size as well as increased
airflow. This new technology transforms passive cabling into intelligent “roadway” that yield
lower operating expenses and capital expenditures for the expanding interconnect market.
For more information, contact your local sales representative.
BI2
uC
thunderbolt
About Q:Active®t
BI1
ISL37231
BI1
EQ CDR DE
DE CDR EQ AI1
AO1
BI2
BO1
EQ CDR DE
BO2
RX1
TX1
RX2
DE CDR EQ AI2
AO2
TX2
RESET
CLK
PWR
TX1
CABLE CONNECTOR
CABLE MEDIA
ISL37231
GND
►For more information go to www.intersil.com
ACTIVE CABLE
CABLE CONNECTOR
GND
uC
EEPROM
SCL
SDA
The Thunderbolt cables are required to be active, and
they incorporate sophisticated signal processing IC’s
(equalizing retimers) at each end of the cable, as well
as a microcontroller to enable communication with the
Thunderbolt controller inside the host. The copper version
of the cables is required to transfer up to 10W of power
in order to power peripheral devices. The Thunderbolt
cable connector is the same as the small form-factor
Mini DisplayPort connector, thus ensuring that PC’s with
Thunderbolt I/O ports are capable to connect with a cable
to both Thunderbolt products and DisplayPort devices.
Intersil’s ISL37231 high-speed signal processing IC in tandem
with its ISL80083 power management IC provide a complete,
highly integrated solution enabling cable manufacturers
to build high-performance, cost-effective cables designed
to support Thunderbolt technology. The integrated
microcontroller in ISL37231 as well as the integrated highefficiency 2.5MHz synchronous step-down converter, a lowinput low dropout linear regulator, 33MHz oscillator, level
shifter and input rail selector greatly minimize the number
of external components required for the production of a
Thunderbolt active cable module, thus reducing the cost and
improving the manufacturability of these cables.
SDA
SCL
A Closer Look at a Thunderbolt
Cable
Why Choose Intersil’s Active Cable
Solution for use with Thunderbolt
Technology?
PWR
CLK
RESET
The PCI Express interface of Thunderbolt controllers allows
PC’s to be connected to a wide variety of native PCI Express
devices by using simple adaptors. The compatibility with
DisplayPort allows the users to take full advantage of the
benefits of this technology (bandwidth, multistreaming,
daisy-chaining, multiple display support) to produce and
utilize cutting-edge broadcast quality media.
ISL80083
PWR
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