Friday
Dec172021
Marvell's 50G PAM-4 DSP for 5G optical fronthaul
Friday, December 17, 2021 at 12:14PM - Marvell has announced the first 50-gigabit 4-level pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM-4) physical layer (PHY) for 5G fronthaul.
- The chip completes Marvell’s comprehensive portfolio for 5G radio access network (RAN) and x-haul (fronthaul, midhaul and backhaul).
Marvell's wireless portfolio of ICs. Source: Marvell.
Marvell has announced what it claims is an industry-first: a 50-gigabit PHY for the 5G fronthaul market.
Dubbed the AtlasOne, the PAM-4 PHY chip also integrates the laser driver. Marvell claims this is another first: implementing the directly modulated laser (DML) driver in CMOS.
“The common thinking in the industry has been that you couldn’t do a DML driver in CMOS due to the current requirements,” says Matt Bolig, director, product marketing, optical connectivity at Marvell. “What we have shown is that we can build that into CMOS.”
