MaxLinear Showcases Industry’s First 5nm CMOS 800G PAM4 DSP on TSMC Advanced Process at OFC 2021

MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE: MXL), a leading provider of radio frequency (RF), analog, digital and mixed-signal integrated circuits, announced today that the company will showcase the industry’s first 5nm CMOS 800Gbps PAM4 DSP for data center applications at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC) from June 6 to June 11, 2021. This 800G DSP is part of MaxLinear’s new Keystone family of 5nm CMOS PAM4 DSPs available for customers.

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MaxLinear's Keystone Family of PAM4 DSPs deliver the industry's lowest power 400G and 800G solutions (Photo: Business Wire)

Keystone represents MaxLinear’s third generation of PAM4 DSPs. It enables small form factors, offers high integration and best-in-class power consumption, and has the flexibility to address multiple optical transceiver use cases and end markets. Keystone DSPs can address both 400G and 800G optical module applications. The extremely low power consumption and small form factor of Keystone enables both sub-8Watt 400G optical module designs (QSFP112 and QSFP-DD) and sub-15Watt 800G designs (QSFP-DD800 and OSFP). Similar to MaxLinear’s previous generation Telluride PAM4 DSP family (MxL9351x and MxL9354x), the Keystone family (MxL9364x, MxL9368x) also includes a monolithically integrated single-ended driver ideally suited for optical transceiver module implementations using electro-absorption modulated lasers (EMLs). Additionally, it features an optional monolithically integrated high-swing differential driver that can be used for direct drive of silicon photonics (SiPh) based modulators.

“With the exponential growth of data traffic within hyperscale cloud networks, the needed increase in interconnect bandwidth in those networks requires lower-power, higher-density optical modules that support higher lane rates,” said Drew Guckenberger, Vice President of Optical Interconnect at MaxLinear. “We are extremely excited to announce the availability of our Keystone family of 5nm CMOS PAM4 DSPs, specifically designed to address these requirements. With our third generation Keystone DSP design, and the power advantages of 5nm CMOS technology, we are directly addressing our customers’ critical needs for low power, highly integrated, high performance interconnect solutions in next generation hyperscale cloud networks.”