The last thing an engineer ever does is read the owner’s manual. An engineer expects to be able to use his
or her skills and training to figure out how to use a product without ever referring to the instructions. In
my experience, either through intuition or trial and error, most of us will eventually figure out the basics.
However, while this may be reasonable for assembling a toy or even working on a car, it is an expensive
and time consuming way to go about electrical engineering.
National Semiconductor has written this LVDS Owner’s Manual to assist you. This design guide compiles
the information and concepts that we think you will need to save you valuable time and money and maximize
the benefit of using National's Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) solutions.
National is the premier analog semiconductor solution supplier and the innovator of LVDS. Our experi-
ence with LVDS gives us the insight to be your trusted advisor. This third edition of the LVDS Owner’s
Manual is an easy-to-read compendium that contains useful information for everyone. There is an intro-
duction to the technology, concepts, and applications for someone just starting to design with LVDS. We
offer guidance on how to select the right LVDS device and family for your application whether it is chip-
to-chip, mezzanine-to-mezzanine, or box-to-box. Perhaps most helpful is our guidance for proper selection
of cables, termination, and backplane design considerations.
We are confident that you will find the LVDS Owner’s Manual a useful reference guide and an introduction
to the many application support tools that we offer. Please visit our support website at LVDS.national.com
for more information or to contact one of our applications engineers.
We are grateful for your business and we look forward to supporting all of your analog semiconductor
solution needs.
Sincerely,
National Semiconductor
LVDS Group
LVDS.national.com
