Precision timing company SiTime has launched a single-chip timing solution for AI compute nodes.

Dubbed the SiT5977 Super-TCXO, the company claims the solution replaces multiple timing components necessary for AI workloads.

Elite-RF-SiT5977
– SiTime

According to SiTime, the TCXO can improve synchronization by as much as three times between AI compute clusters. The TCXO is approximately four times smaller than other architectures, which enables larger processors within compact systems.

“AI training and inference are fundamentally distributed computing applications, which require accurate timing to synchronize activities,” said Piyush Sevalia, executive vice president of marketing at SiTime. “By enabling a new, more efficient architecture, the Elite RF timing solution uniquely supports more efficient AI workload processing, which may lead to higher revenue and lower TCO for data centers.”

SiTime uses MEMS-based chips for its timing solutions, as opposed to Quartz Crystal. According to the company, this improves the stability of the chips to various environmental factors such as heat and airflow including a ±1 ppb (parts per billion)/ degree C frequency slope, and is a "low-jitter" TCXO to give accurate timing.

It is also capable of driving 800G and higher links with 80fs phase jitter and LVDS outputs. The TCXO is resistant to shock, vibration, and board bending, and has on-chip voltage regulators removing the need for LDOs (low dropout regulators).

“Improving AI workload efficiency to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions is an industry-wide challenge. Precision timing is one of the approaches to help solve this problem,” said Dave Altavilla, president and principal analyst at HotTech Vision & Analysis. “SiTime is the only semiconductor company fully dedicated to developing innovative timing solutions required for the complex scaling of today’s AI data centers.”

The SiT5977 Super-TCXO is currently in production and samples are available now.

SiTime launched its Chorus family of clock-system-on-a-chip solutions in April 2024. The Chorus family combines the clock, oscillator, and resonator technologies offered by SiTime in an integrated chip.

In November 2023, SiTime entered into an exclusive agreement with Aura Semiconductor to acquire its clock products and license all of its clock IP. The $148 million deal saw SiTime hold exclusive, perpetual, and irrevocable rights to sell existing and new products based on Aura’s IP and clocking portfolio.