ASIC Alternatives for Differential Receivers
differential receiver/shaper could be built with circuits similar to the differential driver circuit - 1 dip and 10-20 discretes per channel ($10/chnl)
Could implement 8 to 16 channels per 9U ROC
Pulser could be implemented with circuits similar to the differential driver circuit - 1 dip and 10-20 discretes per channel ($10/chnl)
Pulser channel enable and receiver output analog MUX could be implemented with quad cmos analog transmission gates and external serial control implemented with FPGA ($10/chnl)
Pulser amplitude control would be via external DAC and controlled by FPGA above ($10/chnl)
ASIC can provide much lower per channel power, higher ROC channel density and lower per channel cost