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106 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2026 must rethink the tradeoffs we've grown comfort- able with since PAM4 first rattled nerves. This was an entirely new area of exploration for me and the reason I attend DesignCon. As I franti- cally scribbled notes, I gathered they were posi- tioning PAM6 between familiar extremes: • PAM2 (NRZ): Simple, wide margins, limited throughput • PAM4: Doubles bits per symbol, halves eye height • PAM6: A middle path, improved spectral efficiency without the severe margin penalty of PAM8, but with added DSP complexity • PAM8: High density, razor-thin noise margin, steep linearity and power demands They also compared PAM6 to higher-order and coded approaches: • DMD32: Multi-dimensional signaling to redistribute information efficiently • QAM32: Amplitude + phase modulation, common in RF domains • C32 / FC32: 32-level coded schemes to improve robustness • Enhanced FEC (KP4/KPR variants): Because as margins shrink, math becomes mission- critical All in all, our experts conveyed that 448G isn't just a modulation challenge, it's system co-design. Analog front ends, equalization, coding, and FEC must move together. Every dB counts. Our Day 1 keynote, introduced by longtime DesignCon host Susanne Deffree, shifted from copper to quantum. Joseph Lukens, associ- ate professor at Purdue University, explored the nonlocal predictions of quantum entanglement, a topic famously debated by Albert Einstein. Lukens outlined a vision for a "quantum information su- perhighway," drawing par- allels to today's classical internet and its potential to transform how we mea- sure, transmit, and process information. Packed Rooms, Full Playbook Afternoon sessions delivered everything from 2-port impedance measurement master classes to 224G/448G architectures, ESD protection, PCB stackups, Viterbi decoding, Agentic AI, and SERDES deep dives. Despite weather-caused travel disruptions stem- ming from the East Coast, the ballrooms were full. Day 1 closed with the traditional welcome recep- tion: networking, reconnecting, and a well-earned reset before the next day's early kickoff. Keynote: From Backplanes to Quantum Highways