A 70-Mbit/s (RZ) 16×16 crosspoint switch for ternary-encoded signals

An experimental 16×16 crosspoint switch that can switch ternary signals and handle data rates of up to 70 Mb/s return-to-zero (RZ) (equivalent to 140-Mb/s nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ)) per channel is described. Ternary signals, in particular, alternate mark inversion (AMI) encoded signals, are widely used in telephone interoffice digital-transmission systems. This chip could be used in an asynchronous cross-connection system at the DS3 (44.736-Mb/s) signal level. This crosspoint chip has 16 input and 16 output channels. Any input can be connected to any output or outputs without blocking. The architecture allows for paralleling many chips to increase the size of the crosspoint array and also for cascading them to provide multistage switching capability. The switch can be addressed in the same way as a memory chip, and the cross-connection map can be written to and read back from the device. The chip is fabricated using a standard 2-μm CMOS technology, and the die size is 20.16 mm² (177.2×176.4 mil), containing about 11000 transistors