Forum Discussion
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
15 years ago --- Quote Start --- at least make sure FPGA LVDS buffers can drive 100 m UTP cable --- Quote End --- They surely can as long the cable is correctly terminated. The more interesting question is however, if the data can be received correctly at the other end. "Long distance" cable drivers are partly using preemphasis to precompensate for the cable losses, also the ability of a dedicated LVDS receiver to decode attenuated signals has been improved with some types. Did you try a test setup with 100m CAT5 cable? The nominal CAT5 - CAT7 attenuation is 13 dB/100m @ 16 MHz and 18 dB @ 32 MHz, making it unlikely to operate a 32 MBPS LVDS link successfully without additional signal gain and an equalizer compensating the cable loss.