The DS160PR1601 is a 16-lane multi-rate linear repeater with integrated signal conditioning. The device's signal channels operate independently from one another. Each channel includes a continuous-time linear equalizer (CTLE) and a linear output driver, which together compensate for a lossy transmission channel between the source transmitter and the final receiver. The linearity of the data path is specifically designed to preserve any transmit equalization while keeping receiver equalization effective.

The DS160PR1601 can be configured two different ways:

SMBus/I²C Primary mode – device control configuration is read from external EEPROM. When the DS160PR1601 has finished reading from the EEPROM successfully, it will drive the ALL_DONE_N pin LOW. SMBus/I²C secondary operation is available in this mode before, during or after EEPROM reading. Note during EEPROM reading if the external SMBus/I²C primary wants to access DS160PR1601 registers it must support arbitration. The mode is prefferred when software implementation is not desired.

SMBus/I²C Secondary mode – provides most flexibility. Requires a SMBus/I²C primary device to configure DS160PR1601 though writing to its secondary address.