JESD204 IP Core  

JESD204 is a serial interface that is quickly becoming a popular choice for chip manufacturers. Introduced in 2006, JESD204 is a standard that describes the protocol for multigigabit serial data links between a converter and a receiver. The receiver, in most cases, is either an FPGA chip or an ASIC. It was introduced several years ago as an initial interface but has, since then, undergone a lot of revisions and modifications to become an exemplary protocol today that continues to be picked up by more and more users as they realize that it fits their requirements better than most other alternatives.

JESD204 IP cores designs have proven themselves to be efficient and high performing in terms of the speed of the processes as well as the size of the data that it is able to handle. It uses lesser number of pins as will be explained further down below, which ultimately reduces the size of the chip and its footprint. The reduced package size and pin numbers also make it a much more cost efficient option.

The standard has undergone two major revisions so far with the aim to further hone it and create an all round standard that is adept at dealing with modern problems and producing effective solutions. Revision A aimed to introduce the ability of the interface to support multiple aligned serial lanes with multiple converters which it was not able to do previously. Revision B has seen the addition of a number of new features to further facilitate its adoption by chip manufacturers for analog to digital converters as well as digital to analog converters. It also introduced the capability of the interface to deterministically set the latency of the converter and its serialized digital inputs and outputs. JESD204 is suitable to work with either FPGA or ASIC chips.

JESD204 is expected to become one of the most widely used protocol in the tech sphere much like LVDS has been gradually taking over CMOS technology. The reasons why JESD204 interface will be the preferred choice over other options is that it asks for less peak to peak voltage levels with increase in sample rate, requires a lesser number of pins while giving more or less the same converter resolution, and has a significantly less sample rate. JESD204 is the ideal solution for the future since the demand for high resolution, high speed, and high performance converters continues to increase in the general market. That is why we can expect to see the JESD204 standard become the face of digital interfaces to converters in the coming years.

However, no technology is without its faults and there is certainly room for improvement in JESD204 as well. It must continue to evolve and adapt to the changing requirements of the modern performance standards as device and system designs continue to become ever complex.

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