While I presume most of you are thoroughly experienced in signal integrity work, there is a possibility that you aren't. In that case, I will say a few words about signal integrity and what the concept means.

Inside your computer, little bits of data are continuously being transported from device to device where they are processed, stored, or maybe evaluated. The signal integrity engineer studies and designs the mechanisms through which those bits of data pass from place to place. The data is carried over wires that are called transmission lines, and their travel is described by an equation called the telegrapher's equation, which describes losses and reflections. Look out a window. You see what is on the other side of the glass. But look closer; you see a reflection of yourself, too. Why is that reflection there? What causes the reflection? The cause is the difference in index of refraction between the glass and the air. In a very similar manner, when an electrical signal is sent down a transmission line, any change in impedance causes a partial reflection to take place.

For the past couple of decades, digital circuitry computer transmitters and receivers have been largely implemented in CMOS silicon circuits. One of the dominant characteristics of CMOS receivers has been very high input impedance. This high input impedance dissipates very little energy and so has been one of the very desirable characteristics that made CMOS the technology of choice. The other desirable feature of CMOS silicon was the low...