Application of digital ECL and CMOS ASICs in broadband ISDN systems

The high amount of information to be transmitted and switched by the broadband ISDN networks, implies the necessity of using ASICs. The reasons are not the traditional ones of cost minimizing, system reliability and compactness, but just the feasibility. Another very important item that has appeared is the necessity of using different technologies to properly solve the problems that arise in each system scenario due to high speed, complexity and power dissipation, taking into account the needed trade off to deal with the three above mentioned concepts. The authors explain how CMOS and ECL ASICs have been used to implement the basic switching element (EBC) of the RECIBA experimental B-ISDN network