Serial Cables expands PCIe Gen5 retimer boards with Phison

Serial Cables has expanded its deployment of PCIe Gen5 retimer boards through a partnership with Phison, helping speed product delivery for enterprise and hyperscale server customers.

Serial Cables, a supplier of cables, adapters, retimer cards and switch cards for the storage and systems market, turned to Phison after struggling to find retimer suppliers willing to support custom deployments for a smaller hardware vendor. Some customers wanted plug-and-play PCIe Gen5 retimer boards that could ship inside every server, but options were limited.

Retimers are used in high-speed server and data centre systems to preserve signal quality over longer distances and across more complex board designs. As PCIe Gen5 deployments increased, the need for a workable retimer solution became more urgent.

"Our customers would try our retimer products and run into linking issues," said Paul Mutschler, Chief Executive Officer of Serial Cables.

"When we turned to retimer companies for support or firmware tuning, we were told we only got a fixed number of firmware configurations and that was it," he said.

Serial Cables evaluated several alternatives before choosing Phison. According to the company, the decision rested not only on the chip design itself but also on the engineering support Phison was prepared to provide during development and deployment.

One factor was the approach taken by Kevin Chu at Phison, whom Mutschler credited with treating the project as important despite Serial Cables' smaller scale. He said that mattered in a market where larger customers often dominate supplier attention.

"Some of our large customers needed a plug-and-play solution to ship inside every server, and there just weren't many applicable solutions available," said Mutschler.

Deployment progress

Serial Cables described the implementation process as relatively simple, with Phison working alongside its team throughout the rollout. The result was a retimer board that could operate across multiple server platforms without extensive adjustment.

"It was a pretty easy process with Phison's people helping the entire way," said Mutschler.

"The best thing we've found so far is how many platforms the Phison retimer simply plugs into and it works as directed," he said.

Serial Cables has now shipped more than 1,500 Phison-based retimer boards. The companies added that the products have had no reported short- or long-term quality or environmental issues so far, and that the boards achieved a 100% pass rate in customer qualification processes.

Those figures highlight the practical importance of a component that often sits in the background of server design. In data centre hardware, signal integrity problems can delay qualification, increase engineering work and slow delivery schedules for server makers and their customers.

Serial Cables said the partnership also shortened its time to market by 12 weeks. For a supplier serving enterprise accounts and tier-one vendors linked to major hyperscale operators, that reduction can be significant when infrastructure projects are under pressure to move quickly.

Cost pressures

Alongside delivery speed and compatibility, Mutschler said pricing was another issue. Hardware suppliers in the Gen5 market must balance qualification demands and support requirements with the need to keep products commercially viable.

"Phison made our board very reliable and problem free," said Mutschler.

"We're now very cost-competitive with anyone developing these types of solutions," he said.

Serial Cables has operated for nearly two decades, focusing on niche connectivity and interconnect products for storage and systems customers. The Phison arrangement appears to give it a firmer position in a more specialised part of server infrastructure, where compatibility and supplier support can be as important as the silicon itself.

Phison is better known as a supplier of NAND flash controllers and storage products, but its PCIe Gen5 retimer technology has become part of a broader push into data centre infrastructure components. Its retimer products are designed to maintain signal integrity over long distances and across demanding printed circuit board designs.

For Serial Cables, the commercial effect appears to be closely tied to responsiveness. The company said the relationship has allowed it to meet customer requirements without adding complexity to design or deployment.

"The biggest surprise has been Phison's willingness not just to say they'd help, but to actually stand by us and do it," said Mutschler. "The entire experience has been fantastic."