52
Datasheet
System Bus Signal Quality Specifications
system bus, care must be taken to ensure that ESD models do not clamp extreme voltage levels.
Intel I/O buffer models also contain I/O capacitance characterization. Therefore, removing the ESD
diodes from an I/O buffer model will impact results and may yield excessive overshoot/undershoot.
3.3.2
Overshoot/Undershoot Magnitude
Magnitude describes the maximum potential difference between a signal and its voltage reference
level. For the Intel Xeon processor MP on the 0.13 micron process processor both are referenced to
VSS. It is important to note that overshoot and undershoot conditions are separate and their impact
must be determined independently.
Overshoot/undershoot magnitude levels must observe the absolute maximum specifications listed
in
Table 25 through
Table 28. These specifications must not be violated at any time regardless of
bus activity or system state. Within these specifications are threshold levels that define different
allowed pulse duration. Provided that the magnitude of the overshoot/undershoot is within the
absolute maximum specifications, the pulse magnitude, duration and activity factor must all be
used to determine if the overshoot/undershoot pulse is within specifications.
3.3.3
Overshoot/Undershoot Pulse Duration
Pulse duration describes the total time an overshoot/undershoot event exceeds VID. The total time
could encompass several oscillations above the reference voltage. Multiple overshoot/undershoot
pulses within a single overshoot/undershoot event may need to be measured to determine the total
pulse duration.
Note:
Oscillations below the reference voltage can not be subtracted from the total overshoot/undershoot
pulse duration.
3.3.4
Activity Factor
Activity Factor (AF) describes the frequency of overshoot (or undershoot) occurrence relative to a
clock. Since the highest frequency of assertion of any common clock signal is every other clock, an
AF = 1 indicates that the specific overshoot (or undershoot) waveform occurs every other clock
cycle. Thus, an AF = 0.01 indicates that the specific overshoot (or undershoot) waveform occurs
one time in every 200 clock cycles.
For source synchronous signals (address, data, and associated strobes), the activity factor is in
reference to the strobe edge. The highest frequency of assertion of any source synchronous signal is
every active edge of its associated strobe. So, an AF = 1 indicates that the specific overshoot (or
undershoot) waveform occurs every strobe cycle.
The specifications provided in
Table 25 through
Table 28 show the maximum pulse duration
allowed for a given overshoot/undershoot magnitude at a specific activity factor. Each table entry is
independent of all others, meaning that the pulse duration reflects the existence of overshoot/
undershoot events of that magnitude ONLY. A platform with an overshoot/undershoot that just
meets the pulse duration for a specific magnitude where the AF < 1, means that there can be no
other overshoot/undershoot events, even of lesser magnitude (note that if AF = 1, then the event
occurs at all times and no other events can occur).