Out in Front: March 1, 1996

The CLC014 from Comlinear equalizes 50 to more than 650 Mbps data, which has been attenuated by dispersive loss in coaxial cable, twisted-pair cable, or similar media. Applications include professional-video serial digital interfaces for SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and TV Engineers) 259M, asynchronous-transfer-mode and fast Ethernet links, and digital routers and distribution amplifiers. The IC automatically adapts to cables ranging from 0m to lengths that attenuate the signal by 40 dB at 200 MHz, corresponding to 300m of Belden 8281 coaxial or 120m of Category 5 unshielded-twisted-pair cable.

Jitter is less than 180 psec peak-to-peak for data passing at 270 Mbps through 200m of 8281 cable, and input-return loss is 19 dB at that bit rate. The CLC014 accepts single-ended or differential inputs and incorporates carrier-detection, output-mute, and output-eye monitor connection. The 14-pin device comes in a SOIC package, requires either a +5 or a -5.2V supply, and consumes 290 mW.
—by Bill Schweber

Comlinear Corp, Fort Collins, CO. (800) 272-9959.