OuickSwitch devices for high performance applications

With computing systems going faster and faster, and clock cycles getting shorter, buffer delays for signal routing constitute a larger portion of the system clock cycle. The need for faster buffers, transceivers and multiplexers is answered by high performance logic families such Quality semiconductors´ QSFCT logic. Nevertheless, these functions still impose propagation delays of 4 to 6 ns on the already stressed cycle time. This results in either system degradation and/or requires the system to use more expensive memories and control logic. A new device family, the QuickSwitch family from Quality Semiconductor allows signal routing without buffer delays. In many applications, QuickSwitch devices can now replace buffers, incurring no propagation delay. Such applications include, signal multiplexing, resource sharing in multiprocessor systems, crossbars, and others. This article describes how the QuickSwitch can be best used to improve system performance. Special attention is given to the use of the QuickSwitch as a “hot-plug” isolator-allowing a card or a module to be added to a system with its power on