December 2008

Lattice Introduces SERDES Framer Interface, Level 5 (SFI-5) IP Core

Lattice now offers a 40 Gbps SERDES Framer Interface, Level 5 (SFI-5) IP Core implemented in the LatticeSC/M FPGA family. This IP offering is provided at no cost to Lattice customers.

The SFI-5 standard supports interoperation with embedded transceivers, providing a 40 Gbps interface for high-performance optical communications applications. The SFI-5 specification is a chip-to-chip standard that ensures interoperability between forward-error correction (FEC) and the framer, as well as from industry-leading optical transponder devices. The SFI-5 interface transmits data across multiple channels in parallel, where channels may incur different skews between the transmitter and receivers. The SFI-5 receiver delays the data received on all of the channels to match that channel which incurred the longest delay. This removes any skew variation between the channels.

The Lattice SFI-5 IP core is designed to the Optical Interworking Forum Implementation Agreement OIF-SFI5-01.02. The data path uses 17 SERDES transceivers, available in the LatticeSC80 and LatticeSC115 FPGAs in the 1704-ball fcBGA package.

The following are the high-level features of the Lattice SFI-5 IP core:

• Receive block includes the demux block and the framing controller blocks
• Transmit direction includes the deskew controller and the framing controller blocks
• RXLOF, RXOOA, TXOOA, alarms implemented and provided through management interface
• 256-bit external interface
• User-selectable parameters to select the allowed number of framing errors for the deskew channel framer to go into or out of locked state

Reference Design

A reference design included in the IP package allows hardware evaluation using the LatticeSC SFI-5 Evaluation Board. The reference design uses the Lattice Reveal Logic Analyzer to observe circuit operation.

Evaluation Board

The LatticeSC SFI-5 Evaluation Board is available for testing the Lattice SFI-5 solution. SFI-5 hardware interoperability has been completed with a Finisar 40G transponder.

To Learn More

For further information about the SFI-5 IP core, visit the Lattice website or contact your local Lattice sales representative.