Renesa Electronics is the first to launch the next generation server

     Renesa Electronics, the global semiconductor solution provider, announced that it was the first to launch the RG3MxxB12 series of I3C intelligent switching devices for the next generation server motherboards and other infrastructure equipment - the new chips greatly improved scalability and reliability, while reducing the complexity of high-performance system design, Enable the I3C control plane network with multiple initiating device controllers (such as CPU and baseboard management controller/BMC) to support targets in large physical networks running at full speed by improving signal integrity and reducing capacitance load. The new product also supports heterogeneous design by providing IO level conversion and protocol conversion for hybrid I2C/SMBus and I3C networks.

     As an expandable control bus interface, MIPI I3C bus is used to connect peripherals and processors or other management controllers. It has the advantages of high performance, stronger reliability, extremely low power consumption and low electromagnetic interference (EMI). These features also enable new system features such as advanced telemetry, fault recovery, sideband security, component certification, and faster startup times

     The current system design usually uses the traditional I2C protocol and simple field effect transistor (FET) switch to connect the initiator and target devices on the motherboard. This method cannot be extended to the I3C speed, which fundamentally limits system management to the most basic functions. The new i3C intelligent switch product family of Renesa allows the expansion of two initiating device (uplink) ports to four, eight or more target ports at the maximum speed, with complete protocol awareness and compliance. The new Renesa product family also provides seamless conversion between I3C and I2C devices, allowing plug and play compatibility of old devices on the control plane network. This I3C intelligent switch is the result of close cooperation between Renesa and Intel. It starts from concept conception, specification definition, and other links before streaming, and continues to software development, component and system level verification after streaming.

     Rami Sethi, Vice President and General Manager of Renesa Electronic Data Center Business Unit, said: "As the pioneer of I3C hub and extender technology for DDR5 DIMM market, Reza has always believed that this technology has great potential across the entire platform. We are honored to work with Intel to realize this vision through the new I3C intelligent switch product family. These devices will enable our users and partners to bring advanced platform management functions to each subsystem in the rack."

     Vik Tymchenko, vice president and general manager of platform hardware engineering department of Intel, said: "We are glad that Reza and Intel have launched a strong cooperation to jointly define basic circuit solutions for the expanding use cases of MIPI I3C basic applications. New products like the I3C intelligent switch product family help eliminate the basic restrictions faced by MIPI I3C interfaces in the data center hardware. With the I3C switch, we can increase the capacitors and devices supported by the I3C network."

     As a global leader in high-performance computing peripherals, Rexa's new I3C intelligent switch product family will become a powerful complement to Rexa's DDR5 I3C extender, registered clock driver (RCD), power management IC (PMIC), serial detection (SPD) center, temperature sensor, data buffer and other solutions.