1998-09-22 , S/IC-2020/25
Product News From Philips Semiconductors

TDA5360 Offers Data Rates Up To 500 Mb/s; Superior Noise Performance for Faster Time-to-Market and Optimal Performance

Philips Semiconductors today announced the second generation of its high-end preamplifier devices for the  TDA5360 family. Operating at 350 to 500 Mb/s, the TDA5360 family is the industry's fastest pre-amp line, and is designed as a highly integrated, low-noise solution for the server and enterprise storage markets which focus on high-speed data access and video streaming applications.

"Philips Semiconductors is enabling high-end storage device manufacturers to increase speed exponentially without adding significant costs," said Pierre-Yves Couteau, marketing manager for Philips Semiconductors Mass Storage Business Line. "This achievement will become increasingly important as the company moves toward supplying products of this caliber to the desktop market."

The TDA5360 architecture achieves a high signal-to-noise ratio, which allows OEMs to increase capacity on the disks and requires less fine-tuning for faster time-to-market. The 500 Mb/s data rate is supported by innovations in both the read and the write architectures. Additionally, the Philips Semiconductors TDA5360 family allows programming of both a direct power setting or a designated current to sense resistance changes in the magneto-resistive (MR) element. This constant optimization limits potential deterioration of the heads and ensures quality of data storage over the life of the product.

The pre-amp is compatible with both MR and Giant MR heads. The combination of the MR head technology and the high-performance read/write amplifiers significantly increases the areal density and the data rate of the storage drive - subsequently lowering cost.

Philips Semiconductors also provides increased monitoring capabilities to give OEMs greater control and fault tolerance. The TDA5360 offerings are the only pre-amps to code and store fault conditions to allow manufacturers to see exactly where errors have occurred. In addition, they provide digitized MR resistance and temperature values through the serial interface for constant monitoring. Additional features include programmable read gain, sleep and stand-by modes, and servo track write.

Multi-level thermal asperity compensation allows the TDA5360 products to immediately detect and correct any potentially damaging particles on a disk. Separate preamp activation and MR head protection features provide high fault-tolerance and allow for optimal performance. Additionally, the high speed of the TDA5360 architecture will allow OEMs to use the device in several generations of drives - allowing them to protect their investment.

The TDA5360 12 channel version is immediately available to OEMs at US$ 4.90 in quantities of 100,000 or more. An eight-channel version will also be available. Demonstration boards with a software interface are free of charge to qualified manufacturers. For more information call 1-800-447-1500, ext. 1636.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the ninth largest semiconductor supplier in the world and the third largest supplier of discretes in the world. Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by systems labs.