Renesas I3C bus extensions and SPD hub products are certified by the ASPEED AST2600 baseboard Management Controller

     Renesas Electronics announced that the Renesas I3C IMX3102 2:1 bus multiplexer, IMX3112 1:2 bus expander and DDR5 SPD Hub SPD5118 have been certified by ASPEED Technology. ADAPTS to its cutting-edge AST2600 baseboard management controller (BMC) for data centers and embedded platforms and applications. As the first I3C partner on the ASPEED AST2600 BMC Approved Vendor List (AVL), Renesas offers customers an easy migration path to upgrade their DDR5 platforms and boards from I2C or other traditional bus interfaces to the new high-speed I3C specification.

     Renesas I3C drive and extender products contain a wide range of features that allow customers to develop their applications more efficiently and at a lower cost than existing solutions. These features include in-band switching control based on I2C/I3C commands, support for level switching when the main device operates at 3.3V and peripherals at 1.0V, and reduced bill of Material costs by eliminating pull-up resistor equivalent external circuitry. Combined with the ASPEED AST2600 BMC, Renesas I3C devices provide a combination of easy design, bandwidth enhancement and system cost optimization to meet customer application requirements.

     Rami Sethi, vice president and general manager of Renesas' Electronic Data Center Business unit, said: "We perform rigorous validation of our devices to ensure specification compliance and interoperability with key components such as the baseboard management controller to gain customers' favor. "We are proud to work with a leading ecosystem partner like ASPEED to accelerate the adoption of the I3C standard for DDR5 solutions and enable our mutual customers to design with confidence as they make the leap to new high-speed bus interfaces."

     Chris Lin, Chairman and President of ASPEED Technology, said: "BMC SoC AST2600 is our first product to support the I3C interface, and we are excited to work with a strong and trusted partner like Renesas to bring the I3C interface to the server market. Renesas excellent products and rapid response support allowed us to complete the I3C interface verification in a short time. "Thanks to the comprehensive interoperability testing between Renesas and ASPEED, our customers will save a lot of design work and time, resulting in a win-win situation."

     With the growing momentum towards the DDR5 platform, I3C, as a high-speed host interface bus, is gradually favored by the industry because its speed of 12.5Mhz is far higher than that of I2C's 1MHz, which is suitable for applications that require faster communication between the master device and peripheral devices or slave devices. Renesas' robust line of I3C bus extensions for large-scale, high-speed control plane designs continues to lead the I3C evolution and build advanced capabilities for environmental control, advanced telemetry, safety and fault recovery.

     Renesas became the first I3C and SPD hub equipment provider for the AST2600 BMC AVL, reflecting the close collaboration and shared commitment of the two companies to pave the way to I3C for DDR5 memory solutions used in data centers and embedded platforms and applications. Both parties are actively engaged in testing, optimization, and validation level collaboration, product roadmap, and technology synergies to expand the I3C ecosystem and support mutual customers.