A multi-part series in which analogZONE and Georgia Tech shed light on the science, technology, economics and politics of high-speed backplane silicon. Join us as we invite leading SerDes silicon makers to put their products' performance to the test in a variety of near-real-world environments. by Lee H. Goldberg It was April 2002 when the idea of the Great Gigabit Backplane Shootout first hit the pixels of analogZONE. Even then, the idea was novel -- what if we provided a forum in which manufacturers of multi-gigabit backplane transceiver silicon could debate the complex, and sometimes murky issues that factor into their technologies? The results, appearing six months later, were thought-provoking and illuminating. But they still weren't the whole story. The frustrating thing was that, in the end, the debate - though lively - was simply a collection of words, with no way to objectively extract the truth from often-conflicting claims. So..."Prove it!" exclaimed the ever-skeptical editors at analogZONE. Now we've teamed up with research scientists at Georgia Tech to put all those claims to the test. Equalize This! - The Gigabit Backplane Challenge set up a series of real-life hardware benchmark characterization tests. to be run on a $1.5 million test bed facility located in Georgia Tech's new Atlanta-based industry research facility.
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The Great Gigabit Backplane Challenge
