Renesas Electronics is the first to launch the I3C smart switch product family for next-generation server, storage and communication system applications

     Renesas Electronics announced the launch of the first I3C intelligent switching device RG3MxxB12 series for next-generation server motherboards and other infrastructure devices -- a new chip that dramatically improves scalability and reliability while reducing the complexity of high-performance system design. Enables an I3C control plane network with multiple initiating device controllers (such as cpus and baseboard management controllers/BMCS) to support full-speed running of targets in a large physical network by improving signal integrity and reducing capacitance load. The new products also support heterogeneous designs by providing IO level conversion and protocol conversion for hybrid I2C/SMBus and I3C networks.

     The MIPI I3C bus is an extensible control bus interface used to connect peripherals to 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 capabilities such as advanced telemetry, failure recovery, sideband security, component authentication, and faster startup times.

     The current system design usually uses the traditional I2C protocol and the simple field effect transistor (FET) switch to connect the initiator device and the target device on the motherboard. This approach does not scale up to I3C speeds, which essentially limits system administration to the most basic functionality. Renesas' new I3C family of smart switches allows the expansion of two originating device (uplink) ports to four, eight or more target ports at maximum speeds with complete protocol awareness and compliance. The new Renesas family of products also offers seamless conversion between I3C and I2C devices, allowing for plug and play compatibility with older devices on the control plane network. The I3C smart switch is the result of close collaboration between the Renesas and Intel teams. It starts with concept conception, specification definition, and other steps before the flow sheet, and continues after the flow sheet with software development, component and system level validation, etc.

     "As a pioneer in the I3C hub and expander technology for the DDR5 DIMM market, Renesas believes that this technology has tremendous potential across the entire platform," said Rami Sethi, vice president, Renesas Electronic Data Center Business. We are proud to join hands with Intel to realize this vision with the new I3C smart switch product family. These devices will enable our users and partners to bring advanced platform management capabilities to each subsystem within the rack."

     Vik Tymchenko, Vice President and General Manager of Platform Hardware Engineering at Intel, said, "We are pleased that Renesas and Intel have formed a strong partnership to define basic circuit solutions for an ever-expanding range of use cases for MIPI I3C base applications. New products like the I3C smart Switch product family help eliminate the basic limitations of the MIPI I3C interface in data center hardware. With the I3C switch, we can increase the capacitors and devices supported by the I3C network."