EPR4 Press Release

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Silicon Systems, Inc.
14351 Myford Road
Tustin, California, USA

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SILICON SYSTEMS LAUNCHES NEW HIGH PERFORMANCE EPR4 READ CHANNEL FAMILY

Three New BiCMOS Devices Set The Standard For Data Rate, Ease-Of-Use, And Signal-To-Noise Performance For Read Channels Aimed At The Desktop And High Performance Disk Drive Market Segments.

TUSTIN, CA, June 9, 1997 -- Silicon Systems Inc, the Texas Instruments company focused on providing advanced semiconductor solutions for mass storage applications, today unveiled a newfamily of high performance Enhanced Partial Response Type 4 (EPR4) read channel integrated circuits. These new EPR4 devices set the standard in the industry for:

speed at up to 280 Mbit/s with a growth path to over 500 Mbit/s,

ease-of-use with versions that are essentially drop in replacements for popular PR4 chips,

signal-to-noise (SNR) performance improvements of over 2.0 dB at User Density of 2.5,

allowing drive makers to pack more megabytes in their products at less cost.

"Drive makers have been looking for a clear path to gaining the benefits of EPR4 in terms of improved performance, while maintaining their same successful pricing envelope and keeping up with the 60 percent data rate increases required to keep pace with increases in areal density," said Russ Garcia, vice president for marketing at Silicon Systems. "They are also looking for EPR4 devices that are easier to use and require less engineering effort to maintain the short time-to-market of the industry's fastest product cycle. We believe that our new EPR4 read family is the only offering on the market today that meets all these criteria."

The new Silicon Systems EPR4 read channel family includes:

the 32P4101 rated at 200 Mbit/s. Based on the company's popular 32R491X PR4 read channel architecture and pin compatible with these devices, this new read channel offers the fastest engineering path from PR4 to EPR4 for desktop applications.

Utilizing a proven 5-tap FIR filter with adaptive equalization for sampled data discrimination and a new 8-state true- EPR4 Viterbi detector, it offers improvements of over 2.0 dB in signal-to-noise performance at User Density of 2.5. This provides an instant 20 percent gain in linear bit density, translating directly into more megabytes of available storage in a drive at no cost.

the 32P4103 rated at 240 Mbit/s. This performance-enhanced version of the 32P4101 offers desktop drive makers a fully compatible path to higher speeds and better User Density without extensive engineering effort.

the 32P4105 rated at 280 Mbit/s, the world's fastest EPR4 channel ever. Based on a completely new architecture optimized for EPR4, this device gets high performance drive makers on a growth path to 500 Mbit/s or more over the next few years. Combining an 8-state true EPR4 Viterbi detector with a new 5-tap least-mean-square FIR for improved data discrimination and more flexible tuning, it achieves similar improvements in User Density to the other Silicon Systems EPR4 family members.

"Drive manufacturers have been trying for some months to achieve a 2.5 User Density and its attendant 20 percent gain in linear density that supposedly can be achieved by switching from PR4 to EPR4 technology," Garcia noted. "This requires a 2.0 dB or better signal-to-noise ratio improvement to maintain bit error rates within acceptable levels, but competing EPR4 channels have only been able to achieve a 1.25 dB improvement to date. In lab tests, our new EPR4 read channel family delivers more than a 2.0 dB SNR improvement over the entire speed range, allowing drive makers to achieve a User Density of 2.5 that translates directly into more megabytes per dollar for their end user customers."

"Our customers also told us that reducing engineering effort to tune the read channel for a particular head/media combination was also paramount, so we concentrate our EPR4 development efforts on ease-of-use," he added. "For example, while other EPR4 channel makers utilize a Butterworth filter for equalization, we implemented a 7-pole equiripple filter that provides unmatched performance. This allows us to use an analog self-adaptive 5-tap FIR for data discrimination which requires only the two end points to be derived and specified. Other channels must use FIR filters with up to 12 taps (requiring up to six times as many coefficient calculations for tuning) to accommodate less robust equalization strategies and CMOS process variations. Not only does our channel front end greatly shorten the drive design cycle, it can be a tremendous benefit on the production line in accommodating the normal variations in heads and media without limiting performance," Garcia added.

All of the new Silicon Systems EPR4 read channels include a number of other advanced subsystems that make them easier to configure. For example, a digital channel quality monitor is provided to track channel margins based on Viterbi data and keep a running log of drive performance. In addition, a real-time adaptive facility with automatic calibration is provided to accommodate MR head asymmetries which improves drive reliability and eliminates special firmware development. A complete thermal asperity detection and correction facility is also provided, to maintain data integrity following head/media contact, without additional firmware development.

Silicon Systems new 32P4101 and 32P4103 read channels are currently being sampled off-the-shelf, and are priced (sample quantity) at $7.95 and $8.95, respectively. Both are scheduled for full production in August 1997. Samples for the new 32P4105 channel are currently scheduled for July. Sample prices for this high performance part are $9.95, with production scheduled for October 1997.

As the mass storage subsidiary of Texas Instruments Incorporated, Silicon Systems, Inc. provides advanced semiconductor solutions for hard disk drives, tape drives, high density floppy disk drives, and optical disk drives. Its innovations in read channels, controllers and preamps are complemented by TI's leadership in DSP and ASIC solutions and global semiconductor manufacturing capabilities.