Introduction
In today’s information-hungry society, transmitting data
over several inches between computer memory and display
screen is just as critical as sending it halfway around the
globe on fiber optics. Texas Instruments (TI) is constantly
pushing the capabilities and extending the performance
parameters of practically every data transmission standard,
including RS-232, RS-423, RS-422, RS-485, Fibre Channel,
VME, LVDS (low voltage differential signaling), IEEE 1394
(Firewire), USB (Universal Serial Bus), GeoPort, IrDA
(Infrared Data Association), BTL and GTL. Over the past
3 years, TI SLL has combined its expertise in high-speed
digital and analog technologies to offer new single-ended
backplane optimized transceivers, which provide higher
data rates in distributed loads to allow tier 2 uses an alter-
native to more complex and costly differential solutions.