Retimer integrates eight SerDes channels, looks to 1.6Tbit/s

Point2 Technology has launched a low power Smart Retimer system-on-chip (SoC) for active cable applications up to 1.6Tbit/s in hyperscale AI datacentres.

The Point2 P1B121 retimer integrates eight-unidirectional SerDes channels with smart Clock Data Recovery (CDR)/Retimer functions that support 112G PAM4 and 56G NRZ data rates up to 800Gbit/s and next generation 1.6Tbit/s speeds.

The 112G PAM4 Smart Retimer chip has a power consumption of 3.0W while enabling 3ns operations in 800G and 1.6T Active Electrical Cables (AECs). This helps to reduce cable power and cooling energy demands with a power consumption of 6.5W in an 800G paddle card.

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The retimer is aimed at in-rack and adjacent rack data centre configurations including top-of-rack switch to GPU/TPU/CPU server connectivity, rack-to-rack connectivity, and accelerator-to-accelerator compute fabric connectivity. The 3ns latency is 20x lower than available DSP-based PAM4 retimers, says Point2.

“At Point2, we continue to push the limits on power efficiency and sustainability inside the datacentre. We recognize the challenges datacentres face in balancing high-performance and low-latency operations with the need for energy efficiency,” said Sean Park, founder, and CEO of Point2 Technology. “The Point2 P1B121 Smart Retimer SoC is a key solution in addressing those challenges directly and giving datacentres the ability to not only address current 800G data interconnect speeds but prepare for future 1.6T workloads as well.”

The SoC includes adaptable line equalization to optimize for power, performance, and cable length. The Bit Error Rate (BER)-aware architecture uses a series of signal processing building blocks that correlate the total chip BER to the power consumption of each circuit block.

This provides the lower power consumption of active cables as the BER performance allows AECs to be manufactured with smaller copper wire gauges. This reduces the cable volume and thickness, and extending cable length compared to traditional copper cabling.

“The Point2 P1B121 continues the incredible energy-efficiency and ultra-low latency performance that we’ve come to expect from the company’s interconnect solutions,” said Jairo Guerrero, VP & GM Copper Solution Business Unit at cable and connector maker Molex.

“With this new Smart Retimer, we can deliver the AEC performance our hyperscale datacentre customers require while providing a greater power savings and thermal management relief they could not achieve with other DSP-based Retimers in the market today.”

“As cloud datacentres continue to require more data-intensive compute, new short-reach energy-efficient interconnect solutions are necessary. While current direct-attach copper (DAC) and active optical cable (AOC) products each offer unique advantages, they can fall short in meeting the latency, bandwidth and power efficiency required to scale and manage the increased compute requirements of AI applications,” said Lisa Huff, Senior Principal Analyst, Optical Components at market researcher Omdia.

Intelligent Diagnostics ensure reliability, availability, and serviceability of the network while the transmit serializer has a programmable FIR filter and pre-emphasis with a programmable transmit output swing. The de-serializer has programmable continuous time linear equalizer (CTLE) and decision-feedback equalizer (DFE) to mitigate Rx channel loss