Parade Technologies, Ltd. (Parade Technologies) has introduced two new serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) bidirectional repeater integrated circuits, PS8511 and PS8515. The new SATA repeaters exhibits very low dynamic power characteristics and are ideal for driving external SATA (eSATA) receptacles in mobile and the green PC applications. The devices support SATA 1.5Gb/s and SATA 3.0Gb/s interfaces that are the standard data transfer protocols for the external PC disk drives.
The new PS8515 includes an I2C port for the advanced feature support, while PS8511 supports all basic SATA requirements.
The new PS8511 and PS8515 attain a new industry benchmark for the low power performance that is especially critical for the laptop computers. In active data transfer mode, the 1.5V version of these new devices consumes less than half the power needed by most power-efficient competing devices in market. The new PS8511 and PS8515 are also distinguished from other SATA repeaters by their new automatic power management feature, and industry first for SATA repeaters. By taking the advantage of bursty nature of SATA data transfers, the devices automatically enter in a low-power state when the bus is idle. Upon resumption of data activity, the device becomes active again with an exit latency of 10ns. The result is an over 60% power savings during the data transfer, when compared to the competitive devices.
The new PS8511 and PS8515 series have other new features, incorporating the ability to adjust both receiver equalization and the output pre-emphasis to compensate for PCB trace and the cable characteristics. The devices operate from single voltage supply, and are provided in both 1.5V and 3.3V supply options. The PS8511 offers a pinout that matches many existing SATA devices, allowing rapid design conversion to these new parts. All of the devices can be set for both the SATA and eSATA output levels.
The new PS8511 and PS8515 series also set a new standard in the ESD protection, having an ESD rating of HBM 8kV, CDM 2kV, and MM 400V. This allows the devices to interface the eSATA receptacle directly without use of additional ESD protection devices, saving both the PCB board space and additional system cost.
“eSATA is becoming very prevalent in both mobile and desktop PCs,” explains Jimmy Chiu, vice president of marketing at Parade Technologies. “Having the ability to connect an external SATA disk drive is very compelling. However, device power management is particularly important due to the burst nature of SATA data transfer. This affects both device heat generation and battery life in mobile PCs. Parade is the first to introduce an eSATA repeater with fully automatic power management.”