SERDES connections range from simple PCIe 1.1 to 224GHz PAM-4. In addition to understanding the basics of SERDES, issues that could be ignored at 1.5GHz become extremely important at 10GHz and absolute "show stoppers" in PAM-4 type circuits.

The class covers the basics of how SERDES works in three different arenas.
These areas are separated by first by symbol speed. As the symbol speed increases, the size of a critical discontinuity decreases. At 224GHz PAM-4, discontinuities as small as 0.1mm and changes in copper roughness can cause a circuit to fail.
The second area is equalization.
The third area is the analysis used to predict the viability of a particular layout strategy.